The Autonocast gang were all together at Kirsten's TechCrunch Mobility Sessions event recently, where they finally met Taylor Ogan of Snowbull Capital in person. On this week's episode Taylor joins Alex, Kirsten and Ed to discuss the event, the autonomous vehicle renaissance in San Francisco, Snowbull's unique engagement in the online Tesla discussions and more.
With "growth tech" stocks falling generally, and mobility tech companies like Tesla, Lyft and Rivian specifically down since the start of the year, the gang discusses the changing economic conditions for the sector. Plus, everyone is excited to get back together in person and Ed (and only Ed) is excited about nomenclature standardization.
The ability to drive in Manhattan has long been an informal benchmark for autonomous driving. But as the first AVs begin testing in the Big Apple they face an even bigger challenge: proving that they genuinely enhance mobility for everyone. This week Sarah Kaufman of NYU's Rudin Center for Transportation joins the show to discuss her work to ensure that AVs are good citizens of this great city.
Given the technology's transformative potential, there is a surprising dearth of quality Science Fiction written about autonomous vehicles. Into that breach steps Patrick McGinty, whose upcoming novel "Test Drive" explores important themes related to AVs as it follows the lives of three test drivers in a climate crisis-stricken Pittsburgh of the near future. McGinty joins the gang to discuss his excellent new fiction, discuss a wide variety of topics, and make the case for renaissance in AV-related SciFi.
Jason Torchinsky is a true auto media Renaissance Man, covering everything from the weirdest cars you've never heard of to human factors in driving automation and the cosmology of the Pixar Cars franchise cinematic universe. Jason joins the gang this week to discuss all of these things and much more, including his incredibly exciting new website The Autopian (www.theautopian.com).
Friend of the show and mobility pundit David Zipper makes his third appearance on The Autonocast to discuss his recent Washington Post OpEd on self-driving cars (see episode #245 for previous discussion). From there the conversation goes into hype cycles, economic development, the cause(s) of rising road deaths, the lack of results from "Vision Zero" plans in the US and more.
Rafaela Vasquez, the woman behind the wheel during the 2018 crash of an Uber autonomous vehicle prototype, is facing criminal charges for her role in the industry-shaking incident. As we approach the 4-year anniversary of the event and restart of Vasquez's trial, Alex, Kirsten and Ed discuss WIRED's new reporting on the story, and why it is one of the most important stories in AVs and technology more broadly.
The one and only Alex Roy was fired up this week, leading the latest discussion episode through a whirlwind of meaty topics. From Kyle Vogt's return as Cruise CEO to the importance of community engagement for AV companies, and even the question of whether we should be developing driving automation technology at all, there is plenty to sink your teeth into this week.
The asinine "camera vs lidar" debates are blown apart into several, far more interesting pieces in this week's episode, as the gang is joined by longtime friend of the show Tarani Duncan and Jason Devitt, co-founder and CEO of Compound Eye. Discussion covers the multiple approaches to camera-based depth perception, the evolutionary vs ground-up approaches to autonomous vehicles, and a little lidar shade as a treat.