Futurismo | An Automotive News Podcast

Steven Jenkins, vice president of technology strategy at Magna Electronics, discusses how partnerships with the likes of Nvidia spur progress and sophistication in driver-assistance systems.Further, he explains how suppliers remain central in the commercialization of vehicles while working with tech companies and traditional automakers.Finally, he offers firsthand observations on China’s automated-driving future, and shares thoughts on how Western carmakers can keep pace.

Grayson Brulte, founder and CEO of The Road to Autonomy, discusses recent developments in autonomous driving, including Sterling Anderson’s departure from Aurora for a new job at General Motors.Brulte details Aurora’s driverless launch and a short-seller report that has since detoured the self-driving truck startup.He further surveys Waymo’s progress, sizes up Tesla as a potential robotaxi rival and — finally — ponders a doomsday scenario for the city of Detroit.

The executive vice president and chief technology officer at Oshkosh Corp. details the company’s efforts to infuse automated driving technology into work vehicles with niche applications.Those applications range from airport baggage trolleys to garbage trucks — and even autonomous garbage cans that bring themselves to and from the curb. Iyengar explains the compelling business propositions behind those products.Further, she outlines Oshkosh’s defense business and discusses the state of the company’s work on electric vehicles with the U.S. Postal Service.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence principal analyst Bryan Bille assesses policy changes in the first 100 days of President Donald Trump’s second term that affect critical mineral developments, batteries and the electric vehicle supply chain.Amid tariffs and a geopolitical rivalry with China as the backdrop, Bille compares and contrasts Trump’s plans to develop domestic mining and processing options with those of former President Joe Biden. Further, Bille details new seabed mining developments and the ripple effects of America’s search for rare-earth metals around the globe.

McKinsey’s partners Philipp Kampshoff and Patrick Hertzke break down results from the consulting firm’s annual global consumer pulse survey.They detail improvement in owner experiences with electric vehicles in the U.S. and the reasons driver-assist systems will likely become a “clear differentiator” with consumers in the years ahead.

Fischer, vice president of commercial and operations, discusses the tech startup’s new partnership with Nissan, which is Wayve’s first public tie-up with a global automaker.She details how Wayve’s end-to-end AI models help drive the company’s ability to rapidly scale, deliver on its global aspirations and forge an “AV 2.0″ era. Further, she discusses the allure of Level 3 automation and talks about what it’s like to transition from a traditional auto supplier to a tech startup.

On this week’s podcast, the chief technology officer and director of Woven by Toyota details the latest developments at Woven City, the company’s technology and mobility test bed located at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan.He discusses Woven’s ongoing work with the Arene operating system and its role in accelerating the maturity of software-defined vehicles. Further, Absmeier explains Woven’s self-driving strategy and how it fits within the broader Toyota ecosystem.

The author of “Are We There Yet?: The American Automobile, Past, Present And Driverless” examines the effectiveness of efforts to improve road safety with automated-driving technology.In a wide-ranging discussion, he further discusses the appeal of Kei trucks, General Motors’ 1939 Futurama exhibit, Peak Auto, and the virtues of tech-free road trips.

Self-driving tech company Aurora Innovation plans to launch commercial service with its driverless trucks in April.In this episode, Nat Beuse, Aurora’s head of safety, and Gerardo Interiano, senior vice president of government relations, preview the launch and delve into the details of how the company prepared to safely deploy trucks with no humans aboard on public roads in Texas.

This week’s Shift podcast features multiple interviews regarding news developments shared at Nvidia’s GTC, a prominent conference for developers sharing their latest artificial intelligence innovations.In this episode:Nvidia automotive Vice President Ali Kani discusses the company’s new partnership with General Motors and delves deeper into the tech giant’s long-term automotive strategy.Wayve CEO Alex Kendall takes us for a spin around San Jose, shows us firsthand how an end-to-end learning model can effectively drive a vehicle in a new environment with little training, and shares how Wayve might help legacy automakers compete with Chinese rivals and Tesla.Volvo software engineering chief Alwin Bakkenes and Zenseact product Vice President Erik Coelingh detail a new technique that allows them to create thousands of synthetic driving scenarios derived from one real-life incident.

Following a driverless ride around Ann Arbor, Mich., Edwin Olson, the CEO and co-founder of Toyota-backed May Mobility, sits down for a discussion on the company’s plans for new deployments and the company’s work with Lyft.Further, Olson explains how May Mobility’s business model differs from those of its competitors, who actually owns self-driving vehicles, and how the startup quietly emerged as one of the few remaining alternates to robotaxi front-runner Waymo.

Adam Rodriguez, executive director of product and advanced driver-assistance systems at General Motors, shares the latest updates to the company’s Super Cruise feature.Further, he details how GM is integrating software from Cruise, the company’s abandoned robotaxi subsidiary, into blueprints for someday offering personally owned autonomous vehicles.

The senior vice president and general manager of automotive business at computing tech firm Arm underscores the importance of software-defined vehicles to the automotive future. Further, she explains how carmakers can keep up with the frenetic pace of industry innovation.

The founder and managing director of consulting firm Sino Auto Insights discusses BYD’s new “God’s Eye” automated driving system and how it ratchets up competition with Tesla’s Full Self-Driving feature.Further, Le underscores the significance of BYD surpassing 4 million vehicles sold in 2024 and China’s broader automotive ascendance.

The Waabi co-founder and CEO of the autonomous-trucking startup discusses a new partnership with Volvo Autonomous Solutions. Further, she details the generative AI advances at the heart of the company’s end-to-end AI stack and approach to developing “AV 2.0.”

Self-driving trucks are expected to make substantial progress in 2025. Here, the Kodiak Robotics CEO and founder takes stock of the burgeoning industry while detailing how his company readied for driverless deployment with partner Atlas Energy in the Permian Basin area of Texas.

The General Motors senior vice president of software and service engineering details efforts to build a software-oriented culture, explains why the company eschewed Apple CarPlay and examines similarities between Apple and GM’s product-first focus.

Nuro COO Andrew Chapin and Vice President of Engineering Tilo Schwarz explain the company’s pivot from developing bespoke delivery bots toward licensing automated driving tech to carmakers and others. Further, they detail testing efforts on private and public roads.

The executive director of the Coalition for Reimagined Mobility, part of the Securing America’s Future Energy think tank, breaks down new Commerce Department rules that keep Chinese and Russian software and hardware out of the connected-vehicle supply chain.Further, he discusses the state of America’s competitiveness with China in commercializing new transportation technology at meaningful scale.

From Las Vegas, BCG analyst Augustin Wegscheider provides an overview of auto-tech trends at CES. Then Mobileye chief technology officer Shai Shalev-Shwartz details the company’s plans for evolving its driver-assist features into fully autonomous vehicles.