Smarter Cars

Latest Episodes:

Jewel Li - AutoX Aug 06, 2020

Show notes

Today we're talking with Jewel Li, the COO of AutoX, a company making an autonomous driving system for cars, delivery vehicles and long haul trucks. AutoX recently was the third company to receive a permit to test autonomous vehicles in California without a driver in the car. We discuss AutoX's technology and business model, the driverless permit process in California, the testing that AutoX is doing in China, the differences in testing, regulation and infrastructure between China and the US, and AutoX's partnerships and ride service pilots.

Evangelos Simoudis - Synapse Partners Jul 27, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, we talk with venture capital investor Evangelos Simoudis, Managing Partner of Synapse Partners and author of two books on the future of transportation - The Big Data Opportunity in Our Driverless Future and his newly published Transportation Transformation. We discuss his views on the future of autonomous vehicles, ridehail services, micromobility and public transit. We explore his thesis that next generation mobility - combining intelligent infrastructures provided by cities, with multi-modal transportation and goods delivery services - will require new value chains with novel business models and will rely on the collaboration of three constituencies - the automotive ecosystem, mobility services companies and governments. You can find more about Evangelos and his venture capital work at Synapse Partners here: https://synapsepartners.co/about/

Graham Gullans - Superpedestrian Jul 20, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, we talk with Graham Gullans, VP of Business and Corporate Development at Superpedestrian, a company that makes intelligent electric scooters and bikes and now operates a shared micromobility service called Link. We discuss the use of vehicle intelligence to improve safety, reliability and compliance for shared scooters and how Superpedestrian is taking on some of the biggest challenges that shared micromobility operators face.

Modar Alaoui - Eyeris Jul 13, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, we talk with Modar Alaoui, the CEO and founder of Eyeris, a company that provides in-vehicle scene understanding for cars with ADAS systems and fully autonomous vehicles. In-vehicle scene understanding can be used for tasks such as driver monitoring, occupant monitoring, safety and convenience adjustments and personalization, and determining whether a fleet vehicle needs to be cleaned or if items were left behind by a passenger. Eyeris has developed algorithms that evaluate and understand human behavior, surface classification and object localization using cameras and other sensors and an extensive data set built over many years.

You can find more information about Eyeris here: https://www.eyeris.ai/

Dmitry Shevelenko - Tortoise Jul 06, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, we talk with Dmitry Shevelenko, CEO and founder of Tortoise, a company providing remote repositioning services for lightweight electric vehicles such as scooters and delivery robots. We discuss the challenges facing the shared scooter industry, and how Tortoise can help solve operational cost and revenue issues by using tele-operation to remotely reposition scooters to prevent clutter, make scooters more available to find and rent, recharge scooters and provide on-demand rental capability. We discuss Tortoise’s current operations in Peachtree Georgia, and its future plans for deployment in both the scooter and delivery markets.

Matthew Johnson-Roberson - Refraction AI Jun 29, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, we talk with Matthew Johnson-Roberson, the CEO and co-founder of RefractionAI, a company that builds and deploys robotic platforms to provide safe and scalable last mile goods delivery in urban areas. We discuss Refraction’s current business model, providing delivery services to restaurants and grocery stores in Ann Arbor, Michigan, its custom delivery pod that drives autonomously in the bike lane with tele-operation back up, and its future plans for expanding into other sectors and geographies to become the Stripe/Square of last mile logistics and delivery.

Warren Logan - City of Oakland Jun 25, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, we talk with Warren Logan, the Policy Director of Mobility and Interagency Relations for the Mayor’s Office of Oakland, California. Warren works closely with the City’s Department of Transportation, Public Works Department and other Bay Area public agencies to develop strategies that advance the city’s vision for safe and sustainable transportation for everyone. Warren joins us to discuss racism in transportation, including how it affects freedom of movement for black people, the impact of policing and enforcement in public spaces, the reaction in black communities to quick build projects, bike lanes and slow streets, how community engagement and building diverse teams can help serve communities historically left out of urban planning, and how cities and companies need to get out of their silos to address the intersectional issues of transportation, housing, jobs, policing and criminal justice.

James Wu - DeepMap Jun 22, 2020

Show notes

Today we are talking with James Wu, founder and CEO of DeepMap. DeepMap creates high definition maps for autonomous vehicles and assisted driving systems, and provides a map engine service with maintenance and updates to the maps.

We discuss DeepMap’s business and customer model, how high definition maps are created, how mapping and localization work with the autonomous stack, technical and compute challenges for mapping, and the future of autonomous vehicles post-pandemic.

For more on the work DeepMap is doing and job openings, check out their website: https://www.deepmap.ai/

Jason Stinson - Renovo Jun 15, 2020

Show notes

In this episode, we talk with Jason Stinson, CTO and co-founder of Renovo. We discuss Renovo’s origin story going back to 2010 - from its original electric supercar The Coupe, to working with Stanford on Marty, to developing an automotive software platform to help companies manage data from autonomous driving and assisted driving systems. Jason’s a car guy and a tech guy so we also discuss his thoughts on the future of autonomy, whether there will ever be a Level 3 car, and what it will take to get autonomous vehicles deployed at scale.

Jody Kelman - Lyft Jun 01, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to Season 5 of the Smarter Cars podcast. In this episode, we talk with Jody Kelman, Director of Product Management, Lyft’s Self-Driving Platform. We discuss Lyft’s two-pronged approach to autonomous vehicles, including its partnerships with Aptiv in Las Vegas and Waymo in Arizona, as well as its own development of an autonomous driving system through its Level 5 division. We also cover the challenges of operating self-driving fleets on a ride hail platform, and policies to promote multi-modal trips and better traffic flow in cities.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Smarter Cars

Related Podcasts

1

2

3

4

5

6