Waymo Upstages Uber’s Party: Avride’s Debut & The Reality of Scaling

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss “Thriller in the Big D” as Waymo upstages Uber’s party in Dallas. The day before Uber was set to announce its commercial launch with Avride in Dallas, Waymo stole the spotlight by announcing they went driver-out in the same city. 

During the episode Grayson and Walt analyzed the fallout from this timing, including Uber’s “marketing fail” where a safety driver was spotted in promotional footage, and debate whether Avride’s limited 9-square-mile launch is a legitimate business move or just another “science project”.

Beyond the drama in Texas, they dove into the broader race to scale, questioning if adding a few hundred cars in new markets Houston, Baltimore, and St. Louis truly counts as commercial scaling. As Waymo announces new markets, Sterling Anderson is aggressively hiring at GM and the autonomous trucking market is beginning to heat up.

Read the Full Episode Transcript

Episode Chapters

• 0:00 The Thriller in Big D featuring Waymo, Avride and Uber
• 5:17 Autonomous Vehicle Messaging
• 7:01 Avride / Uber’s Dallas Service Area
• 10:14 No New Waymo/Uber Markets, So Far
• 13:50 Waymo’s Rapid Expansion
• 18:56 Waymo’s Six Stages of Autonomy
• 20:26 No Waymo Commercial Launch for Art Basel
• 21:49 Will Tesla Robotaxis Ever Be Available on Uber?
• 23:06 FSD Updates
• 25:00 Sterling Anderson’s Growing Role at GM
• 29:04 Wayve Acquires Quality Match
• 29:41 Foreign Autonomy Desk
• 30:13 Waymo’s Continuing Zeekr Issue
• 32:21 Autonomous Trucking
• 33:50 Next Week

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