Waymo's Lead and Autonomous Trucking's Inflection Point

Waymo's Lead and Autonomous Trucking's Inflection Point

From Autonomy Markets by Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk

May 23, 2026 · 36 min · Season 1 · Episode 89

About this episode

Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo's lead in autonomous driving, the shift towards ADAS, and the state of autonomous trucking.

This week on Autonomy Markets , Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s undisputed global lead, the growing consumer-driven shift toward supervised ADAS (Level 2++), and autonomous trucking’s inflection point. After spending the week in Silicon Valley, Walt shared his on the ground observations amidst the backdrop of Waymo’s noisy week where the company paused service in several cities and temporarily shut down highway access. Even though Waymo had a difficult week, the company’s underlying position is unchanged, as they remain the undisputed global leader. Wayve announced a supervised L2++ point-to-point deal with Stellantis, indicating a potential pivot towards ADAS as a short-term revenue generator. Grayson views the broader growth of ADAS as being consumer-driven, with global OEMs looking to build their own version of Tesla’s FSD. Wrapping up the conversation, Grayson and Walt discussed London gearing up for robotaxis and the global growth of Chinese robotaxis. Episode Chapters 00:00 Walt's Silicon Valley Field Report 07:20 Why Tesla Won't Add LiDAR 11:05 Uber's AV Labs and the Data Question 13:13 ADAS Opportunity 18:40 Waymo's Noisy Week 23:45 London Further Opens…

People in this episode

Hosts: Grayson Brulte, Walter Piecyk

Topics covered

  • Waymo
  • autonomous trucking
  • ADAS
  • robotaxis
  • Silicon Valley
  • consumer-driven technology

Keywords

  • Waymo
  • ADAS
  • autonomous trucking
  • robotaxis
  • Silicon Valley
  • Stellantis
  • Tesla

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Waymo, Wayve, Stellantis, Tesla

Places: Silicon Valley, London, China

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