Every once in a while, someone coins a word that takes a huge and complex concept and makes it comprehensible to the general public. That's exactly what Liza Dixon did one day, when she responded to one of Alex Roy's tweets with a brand-new neologism: Autonowashing. We caught up with the doctoral candidate, human-automation interaction expert and all-around badass to discuss Autonowashing, her research, human factors and much more.

Two major developments in the autonomous vehicle world captured our attention in this week's discussion episode: Waymo's deal with Volvo, and Amazon's purchase of Zoox. We discuss the deals, what they might mean, and how they affect the rest of the alliances... but more importantly, how we should mash up the names into catchy portemanteau.

The gang has a lot of news to discuss this week, with an NVIDIA-Mercedes partnership, BMW and Daimler's "conscious uncoupling," Apple Maps' mobility features, and Lyft's recent moves in mapping and electrification. Still, in spite of all this meaty news, Alex only wants to discuss one thing: blenders. Welcome, friends, to the Blendercast.

The gang spends this week's discussion talking about fiction, specifically the new Amazon Prime show "Upload." This is a bit of a change of pace, as The Autonocast has always tried to keep its discussions firmly rooted in the real-world, but there's a good reason for this switch-up. For one thing, it's just plain fun at a time when we could all use a little escapism, but according to Ed it's actually educational too... or is he just kidding himself?

With everything going on right now, mobility can seem like a frivolous thing to be focused on but as the gang discusses in today's episode it's actually more important than ever. New technology allows us to build new ways of getting around, and to ensure that these new systems serve everyone it's critical that we understand how our past systems failed to do so. Plus, what's the deal with that study saying AVs will only solve 34% of road crashes?

We've talked a lot about the importance of picking the right domain in early applications of autonomous drive technology, but one rarely gets discussed: the parking lot. Anuja Sonalker is taking on that challenge at her company STEER, which is developing autonomous parking functionality for both the direct-to-consumer retrofit and OEM option markets. She joins the show to explain how STEER hopes to address that market, discuss her background in cybersecurity, and explain some important AV safety concepts.

With the timelines for fully autonomous vehicle deployments stretching out, much of the automated driving technology space is pivoting toward the booming advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) market. To help us understand what's driving that market and how it's developing, we are joined by Aine Denari, the SVP of ADAS at the giant Tier One supplier ZF.

Those of us who follow and/or report on autonomous vehicles often struggle to find the right way to frame competition in the space. Is it a horse race, only everyone is headed for a different finish line? Is it the Hunger Games, only not boring and stupid? Deep thoughts abound as the gang discusses the recent news.