Building Plaid for the Autonomy Economy
Ben Seidl, Co-Founder and CEO of Autolane joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss building Plaid for the autonomy economy, an independent, OEM-agnostic orchestration platform that connects autonomous vehicles to businesses for tip-free delivery.
The inspiration for Autolane was born in August 2024 when Ben turned on FSD in his Tesla for the first time and worked backwards from a simple question. When personally owned autonomous vehicles become a reality, what has to exist for a car to drive to a store, park in the right stall, pop its trunk, and complete a transaction without a human in the loop?
The answer, a neutral platform that no OEM, marketplace, or retailer controls. Studying the Argo AI and Cruise OEM control of AV 1.0 convinced Ben that taking capital from a Ford or a Walmart limits the market and muddies decision making.
Autolane entered the market through ride-hail orchestration, deploying first at Stanford Shopping Center with Simon Property Group in September 2025 to give landlords control over where Waymo and Tesla robotaxis arrive on private property.
Over the summer, Autolane went live with So Chinese Takeout in Austin, operating a fleet of 13 Tesla Model Ys equipped with temperature-controlled smart lockers that batch two to three orders per trip as they expand the business beyond ride-hail orchestration.
Episode Chapters
- 0:00 Inspiration for Autolane
- 4:34 Autolane’s Quest to Remain Independent
- 11:06 Deploying at Stanford Shopping Center
- 13:02 Chapter One: Orchestration
- 16:46 Autolane Zones
- 26:41 Fleet Ownership
- 28:36 Underwriting Autonomous Delivery
- 33:53 Matching Supply and Demand
- 37:29 French Fry Test
- 39:38 QSR Delivery
- 46:59 Sidewalk Dots, Drones, and Humanoids
- 54:35 Plaid for the Autonomy Economy
- 57:42 AUTNMY AI
The future is bright. The future is autonomous. The future is The Road to Autonomy.
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