The Road to Autonomy

Lee Redden, Founder of LastFeet joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss solving the last 50 feet of package delivery with a custom-built legged robot designed to ride in the jump seat of a delivery van and carry packages from the curb to the doorstep.
After co-founding Blue River Technology and selling it to Deere, Lee returned to building because he believes this is one of the best times ever to build robots. LastFeet’s robot walks on four legs with wheels on its feet, so it can climb the high step out of a box truck and then roll quickly and steadily to the door. It learns to walk entirely in simulation, a big change from the hand-calculated kinematics Lee learned in grad school.
The inspiration came from delivery drivers. Lee interviewed dozens of drivers and shadowed their routes, then modeled his robot on the runner, the second person who rides in the passenger seat on busy days and carries packages to the door while the driver keeps driving.
On day one, the robot sits in the jump seat with no change to how the back of the van is loaded. The driver loads a package, the robot bows at the door to set it on the step, and if it runs into something it can’t handle, it asks a remote human for help.
The first robot carries 15 pounds, which covers most packages, and runs on an NVIDIA Orin AGX with two-hour hot-swappable batteries. When it’s unsure what to do, its safety response is to freeze in place and turn into a table.

Episode Chapters
0:00 Why Lee Redden Is Building Again
02:41 How the LastFeet Robot Works
04:56 How to Build a Robot in 2026
07:27 Testing in Snow and Ice
10:00 How the Robot Delivers to Every Doorstep
12:43 Riding in the Jump Seat of a Delivery Van
15:00 Manufacturing at Scale
18:46 Building for Rugged Delivery Vans
22:54 LastFeet Business Model
29:32 Battery Life and Charging in the Van
32:11 What Lee Learned Shadowing 50 Delivery Drivers
37:28 Safety and Building Trust With the Public
40:18 The Future of LastFeet
43:11 AUTNMY AI

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About The Road to Autonomy
The Road to Autonomy is the leading applied intelligence platform covering the convergence of automation, autonomy, and the Autonomy Economy.™.
Through our podcasts, newsletter, and proprietary applied intelligence, we set the narrative for institutional investors, industry executives, and policymakers navigating the convergence of automation, autonomy, and economic growth.
Join institutional investors and industry leaders who read This Week in The Autonomy Economy every Sunday. Each edition delivers exclusive insight and commentary on the autonomy economy, helping you stay ahead of what's next.

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This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk discuss Waymo’s expansion to Tokyo and Singapore, NHTSA’s ongoing audit of Tesla’s Cybercab in Austin and Bolt’s plan to deploy up to 25,000 Lucid robotaxis in Europe.
Today, Tesla has roughly 40 Cybercabs operating in Austin, and Grayson believes Tesla is respectfully holding at its home market while NHTSA completes a fact-finding audit. If Tesla passes, it is free to deploy in any state that permits fully autonomous operations. Walt expects the process to wrap by year-end, and Grayson reads Administrator Morrison’s Pittsburgh speech on updating outdated federal motor vehicle safety standards (FMVSS) as a signal that a pathway is opening.
As Waymo continues their global expansion, Grayson predicts Singapore will be an IONIQ 5 market and Tokyo a Toyota market, with the vehicle constraint that has defined Waymo now dissipating, and he reads the Allianz partnership as the insurance piece falling into place for Waymo’s grand European expansion.
In Las Vegas, riders can now go anywhere in the ODD, and in Nashville, The Road to Autonomy Special Field correspondent David Moss got banned from the Lyft app playing autonomy roulette.
May Mobility announced a SPAC with $10 million of 2025 revenue and a $270,000 bill of materials, and Wayve hired Waymo’s former CFO, which Grayson views as a signal Wayve may be eyeing the public markets.
On the Foreign Autonomy Desk, Grayson and Walt analyzed Einride’s deployment in Germany, Pony AI, Uber and Verne’s driver-out launch in Zagreb on a 13.67-mile fixed loop. Spain issued its first SAE Level 4 permit to WeRide and Uber, with Grayson predicting a Waymo expansion to Madrid by Q2 of next year. In Singapore, Grab is expanding their WeRide fleet 5X to 50 robotaxis.

Episode Chapters
0:00 Reviewing the Jason Calacanis Episode
03:17 Tesla Cybercab NHTSA Audit
06:23 NHTSA Administrator Morrison's Pittsburgh Speech
08:14 Waymo on Lyft in Nashville
10:56 Waymo in Las Vegas
13:17 Waymo in Tokyo and Singapore
16:20 Waymo / Allianz Partnership
17:25 Bolt's Grand Robotaxi Ambitions
20:45 May Mobility SPAC
23:42 Wayve's Hires Waymo's Fmr. CFO
24:45 Hyundai IONIQ 5 Robotaxis
28:11 Autonomous Trucking
30:34 Foreign Autonomy Desk
35:35 Next Week

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About The Road to Autonomy
The Road to Autonomy is the leading applied intelligence platform covering the convergence of automation, autonomy, and the Autonomy Economy.™.
Through our podcasts, newsletter, and proprietary applied intelligence, we set the narrative for institutional investors, industry executives, and policymakers navigating the convergence of automation, autonomy, and economic growth.
Join institutional investors and industry leaders who read This Week in The Autonomy Economy every Sunday. Each edition delivers exclusive insight and commentary on the autonomy economy, helping you stay ahead of what's next.

Sign up for This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Autonomy Signals presented by KPMG, Grayson Brulte and Rob Grant discuss NHTSA ordering Tesla to answer 21 technical and legal questions under oath by September 30 on Cybercab self-certification, Waymo hitting local political friction in San Diego after CPUC approval, and GMO Air unveiling a robot EMS vehicle in Tokyo built to service humanoids in the field.
NHTSA’s Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance, by special order signed by the Chief Counsel, required Tesla to explain how a steering-wheel-free Cybercab meets FMVSS 101, 102, 108, 111, 126, and 135 standards written around human controls such as mirrors, brake pedals, turn-signal self-cancel, and shift displays, and why Tesla did not seek a Part 555 exemption as Zoox did.
The inquiry also asks whether some test results depended on temporary manual controls later removed. Public Cybercab service began September 3, 2026 in Austin. Nothing in the order grounds the fleet or caps production; September 30 is an evidentiary deadline, not a shutdown date.
While Tesla answers Washington, San Diego City Council voted 8–0 to request local regulatory authority over AI and autonomous vehicles, a follow-up to CPUC approval that gives the city no power to stop Waymo. California has preempted local autonomous vehicles rules for more than a decade.
The San Diego City Council resolution is toothless on paper, but it flags the real friction points: emergency-response incidents, airport access outside state preemption, stricter local ticketing after a July 1 law, and depot or charging permits that still sit with the city. Waymo called the move extraordinarily premature and cited a 100,000-person local waitlist; it already has a field-verified operational depot in San Diego.
In Tokyo, GMO Air unveiled a robot EMS vehicle equipped with diagnostic tools, spare parts, a backup humanoid, and a purple roof light distinct from red human-ambulance lighting. The demo still used human-in-the-loop controls because of latency. The signal is adjacent infrastructure, field maintenance and uptime for deployed humanoids, not a driverless medical ambulance for people.

Episode Chapters
0:00 KPMG Sponsor Introduction
01:41 Signal 1: Will NHTSA Ground Cybercab?
26:59 Signal 2: San Diego City Council Wants Local Control
48:39 Signal 3: Japan’s Ambulance for Humanoids

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About The Road to Autonomy
The Road to Autonomy is the leading applied intelligence platform covering the convergence of automation, autonomy, and the Autonomy Economy.™.
Through our podcasts, newsletter, and proprietary applied intelligence, we set the narrative for institutional investors, industry executives, and policymakers navigating the convergence of automation, autonomy, and economic growth.
Join institutional investors and industry leaders who read This Week in The Autonomy Economy every Sunday. Each edition delivers exclusive insight and commentary on the autonomy economy, helping you stay ahead of what's next.

Sign up for This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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

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About The Road to Autonomy
The Road to Autonomy is the leading applied intelligence platform covering the convergence of automation, autonomy, and the Autonomy Economy.™.
Through our podcasts, newsletter, and proprietary applied intelligence, we set the narrative for institutional investors, industry executives, and policymakers navigating the convergence of automation, autonomy, and economic growth.
Join institutional investors and industry leaders who read This Week in The Autonomy Economy every Sunday. Each edition delivers exclusive insight and commentary on the autonomy economy, helping you stay ahead of what's next.

Sign up for This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on Autonomy Markets, Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk are joined by special guest Jason Calacanis, one of the first investors in Uber, to debate his bull case on Uber, who wins the robotaxi endgame and whether local governments will cap the deployment of autonomous vehicles.
Jason earns the first clappy hat of the episode for saying what few in the market will, Tesla is obsessed with safety. The incidents Waymo has absorbed would be showstoppers under Tesla, and Tesla knows it. Jason, who drives FSD daily on Hardware 4, puts the system at 98 percent of the way to Level 4 and wants to buy a Cybercab fleet.
The robotaxi endgame, in Jason’s view, comes down to manufacturing. A shift from 2 percent of global miles on rideshare to 30 percent requires more than 100 million autonomous vehicles and a $5 trillion fleet build-out larger than the AI data center build-out.
Tesla wins the gold because it owns the factory. In Jason’s opinion Waymo will have to buy a car company, likely Rivian or Lucid, after it spins out of Google and IPOs. Uber owns the demand and will take the rest of the market with its 20 partners, several of which Jason predicts will pivot to building only robotaxis. His market share call is 40 percent Tesla, 35 percent Uber and 15 percent Waymo.
Walt pushes back on whether there is enough at the table for Uber’s twelfth partner and questions whether any of them are close to Tesla or Waymo today, with 300 Nuro powered Lucid Gravity vehicles by June being a win. Jason counters that Nuro and Avride will be driver-out within 24 months and that no one else can afford the $100 to $300 per customer required to build another Uber-scale network.
The sharpest debate of the episode is regulatory capture. Jason argues local governments will cap and license autonomous vehicles the way they did Airbnb, that drivers will be the first mass unemployment from AI and that Uber is right to negotiate a soft landing with unions.
Grayson argues federal preemption is coming and that caps will disappear when a national framework arrives. The two settle it with a steak dinner bet on whether local communities or the federal government win the fight in the United States.
Jason closes with his theory on Uber and his dream scenario of Travis Kalanick returning as CEO of Uber.

Episode Chapters
0:00 Jason Calacanis joins Autonomy Markets
02:19 Cybercab Fleets
04:04 Tesla's obsession with Safety
07:27 Everywhere-All-at-Once Fallacy
09:33 Uber Shutting Down ATG Was a Mistake
12:51 The Gap Between Engineers and the Market
16:37 Jason Calacanis on Why Waymo has to Buy a Car Company
18:15 Uber's Surge Pricing Strategy
19:16 Jason Calacanis' 40/35/15 Robotaxi Prediction
25:58 Are Any of Uber's Partners Technically Close to Tesla or Waymo?
30:23 Uber Eats is Half of Uber's business
32:18 100 Unsupervised Robotaxi Benchmark
33:37 Robotaxis in China
35:31 Regulatory Capture Debate begins
41:31 Steak Dinner Bet
49:02 Personally Owned Autonomous Vehicles Impact on Shared Rides
52:27 Waymo and Toyota moment to Watch in Q1 27
55:30 Puke in Uber, Get a Bonus
56:28 Travis Kalanick, CloudKitchens and Atoms
58:08 What Travis Kalanick Would do Differently
59:09 PIF, Lucid, Nuro and a Full-Stack Uber with-in 36 months
1:06:16 Atoms Robotaxi Depot Play
1:12:32 If and When Waymo Goes Public
1:17:36 Why Japan needs autonomy
1:20:46 The Next 12 months
1:22:20 The Next Tesla Robotaxi format
1:27:42 Autonomous Regional Travel
1:29:47 Amazon, Google or Tesla should buy Uber
1:31:39 Consolidation, First Dominos, Zipline, Wayve and Nuro
1:34:52 Framing the Bet

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About The Road to Autonomy
The Road to Autonomy is the leading applied intelligence platform covering the convergence of automation, autonomy, and the Autonomy Economy.™.
Through our podcasts, newsletter, and proprietary applied intelligence, we set the narrative for institutional investors, industry executives, and policymakers navigating the convergence of automation, autonomy, and economic growth.
Join institutional investors and industry leaders who read This Week in The Autonomy Economy every Sunday. Each edition delivers exclusive insight and commentary on the autonomy economy, helping you stay ahead of what's next.

Sign up for This Week in The Autonomy Economy newsletter
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.