Goodbye wheelchairs. Hello Cruz: autonomous mobility pods

About this episode

John Koetsier interviews Matthew Anderson about the future of autonomous mobility and crowd navigation technology.

What if airports had self-driving mobility pods that could safely navigate through crowds, just like something out of The Jetsons? Or the Pixar movie Wall-E? In this episode, John Koetsier sits down with Matthew Anderson, CEO of A&K Robotics, to explore the future of autonomous mobility. A&K Robotics is building AI-powered self-driving pods designed to help people navigate airports independently without relying on wheelchairs or staff assistance. But the real breakthrough isn’t just autonomy. It’s crowd navigation. Matthew explains why navigating dense, unpredictable crowds is one of the hardest problems in robotics, and how A&K’s “crowd-centric AI” could become foundational technology for airports, stadiums, smart cities, conferences, and even humanoid robots in the future. They also discuss: * Why airports are the perfect proving ground for robotics * The AI and sensor stack powering autonomous mobility * Directional sound systems inspired by The Sphere in Las Vegas * Scaling robotics startups from prototype to deployment * Raising an $8M Series A round * The personal story that inspired Matthew to build the company * Why the future of robotics depends on moving…

People in this episode

Host: John Koetsier

Guest: Matthew Anderson

Topics covered

• autonomous mobility
• robotics
• AI
• crowd navigation
• startups
• technology

Keywords

• autonomous mobility pods
• crowd-centric AI
• robotics startups
• AI technology
• self-driving

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: A&K Robotics

Products: AI-powered self-driving pods

Places: airports, Las Vegas

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