The Road to Autonomy

Ali Kashani, Co-Founder and CEO of Serve Robotics, joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how Serve Robotics scaled its delivery fleet into an operating layer for physical AI.
Over the past year, Serve Robotics has grown from roughly 50 robots to 2,000, and in Q1 2026 the company reported $3 million in revenue with 45% coming from recurring software licenses.
To achieve that growth, Serve is now selling their stack as modular layers, letting other companies license the connectivity, data infrastructure, or hardware piece by piece rather than build everything from scratch. This includes a freemium version of Autonomy Assist, its version of remote assistance.
As the company continues to grow Serve is ramping production of their Gen 3 vehicle, which runs at one-third the cost of Gen 2 while delivering five times the compute, a 48-mile range, four-wheel steering and suspension, and the ability to operate in heavy rain.
The vehicles are sub-assembled in Asia with the completed final assembly occurring in with Magna International in Michigan. This give the company the flexibility to manufacture end to end in Asia for markets where US tariffs make domestic production uneconomical. With international expansion underway in Tokyo and Sydney this year and a larger push planned for 2027, Serve is positioning to follow demand across the APAC region and beyond.

Episode Chapters
00:00 Growing and Scaling Revenue
8:51 Licensing the Platform
11:17 World Models
14:59 The Laundry Vertical
16:52 Expanding Internationally
22:39 Gen 3 Vehicle
26:17 Edge Cases
28:43 Future Form Factors
30:09 Diligent Robotics Acquisition
34:06 The Operating Layer of Physical AI
36:21 Future of Serve Robotics
36:54 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, Indices 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 Qualcomm and Mobileye‘s differing robotaxi strategies, NHTSA removing the physical brake requirement for autonomous vehicles and the New York State Legislature failing to advance an autonomous driving bill.
As Congress moves on the Build America 250 Act to legalize autonomous trucking and advances a national framework for autonomous vehicles, Grayson and Walt note that federal action could preempt the hostile policies blocking deployment in New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts.
On the robotaxi side of the business, Mobileye signaled it wants to own and operate a fleet, a press release Grayson flagged for having no city permits and no SEC trail. Walt likened the pivot to BlackBerry building its own product to validate the technology, while Qualcomm took the opposite path at its Investor Day, positioning the company as a low-cost autonomous driving solutions provider that will only supply the Snapdragon automotive platform to enable OEMs to scale their businesses as Qualcomm’s automotive business climbs toward $10 billion by fiscal 2029.
Before segueing into the Foreign Autonomy Desk, Grayson and Walt debate Tesla’s robotaxi turning one year old still short of 100 cars in Austin, Uber’s week of deals and Waymo pausing service around a World Cup stadium, on highways and in some cases heavy rain, leading the hosts to wonder if there is a sensor issue.
On the Foreign Autonomy Desk, China’s Autonomous Belt and Road Initiative continues to accelerate across the globe with Pony.ai launching commercial service in Singapore, Baidu partnering with Swiss Post and WeRide and Uber preparing to launch commercial service in Switzerland.

Episode Chapters
0:00 Back from Hiatus
01:46 New York Continues to Be Hostile to Autonomous Vehicles
05:07 Uber Continues Global Robotaxi Expansion
06:56 The Rise of Non-Binding MOUs
10:28 Waymo Opens Nashville Market
12:16 Waymo's On-Going Sensor Issues
14:53 Tesla Robotaxi One-Year Launch Anniversary
16:12 Mobileye's Robotaxi Fleet Ambitions
21:04 Qualcomm's Growing Automotive Business
28:50 May Mobility's European Expansion
35:36 China’s Autonomous Belt and Road Initiative Continues
36:47 Zoox Design Update
38:27 Nvidia's Neibus Investment
41:20 The Road to Autonomy Indices Launch
43:58 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, indices 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, Grayson Brulte and Rob Grant are joined by David Moss, Devin Olsen, and Spencer to break down the first-ever FSD coast-to-coast drive across Canada with no interventions and what 3,782 miles exposed the limits of the Tesla's current consumer hardware.
For their journey across The Great White North, the team used a Tesla Model 3 running FSD 14.3 on a journey that took them from British Columbia to Halifax, Nova Scotia with zero driving disengagements, across driving environment that the team has never experienced before.
The route threw everything at the car. Two lane roads through the middle of nowhere, fifty mile stretches with no markings, construction flaggers holding stop signs, and Supercharger lots with no lines and no visual reference. The trip became a public stress test of the AI4 hardware suite.
Over the six day journey, rain and road grime blinded the cameras and triggered occlusion warnings, throwing a red hands takeover as they pulled into a Supercharger. Across the full run, not a single inch was driven by hand. When the weather turned, the team stopped to clean cameras every fifteen minutes, the exact failure mode the Cybercab teardown answers with onboard air and liquid washers.
Tesla FSD Supervised is the best Level 2+ system in the market today. As Tesla's robotaxi ambitions grow, the question now is whether camera only hardware can clear weather, occlusion, and the absence of self-cleaning to truly unlock FSD Unsupervised, or whether that threshold rests on AI5 and a washer equipped sensor stack as Tesla scales toward FSD version 15.

Episode Chapters
00:00 Signal 1: 3,782 miles Across Canada
11:11 Camera Occlusion
17:04 What FSD Unsupervised Actually Requires
32:44 OMEGA's Take
45:09 Where's Next?
56:45 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, indices 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: https://www.roadtoautonomy.com/ae/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Matt Soule, Founder and CEO of Parallel Systems, joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss how Parallel Systems is building the internet of freight by combing autonomy and rail.
To date the company has raised nearly $100 million and secured Federal Railroad Administration clearance to test its autonomous rail vehicles on 160 miles of track in Georgia. Parallel’s technology integrates directly into back-office railroad dispatch networks, operating like air traffic control so vehicles respect unique track authority and never conflict with traditional freight trains.
By replacing mechanical couplers with software-managed bumpers, platoons of up to 50 vehicles form and break apart on the move, splitting off to separate destinations or peeling away to keep grade crossings open. Today, Parallel is now ramping production of its commercial Gen 3 vehicle, which advances past the Gen 2 prototype by hauling up to 160,000 pounds at speeds over 60 mph on an innovative, low-cost bent steel chassis. T
The electric propulsion system is built to revitalize unprofitable short-haul routes under 500 miles by lowering the lane density a railroad needs to justify service. Shifting heavy freight to rail gives shippers pricing stability against volatile diesel spikes, delivers granular tracking visibility, and creates a new ecosystem of local maintenance and remote supervisory jobs while decongesting highway traffic around major ports.
To address a growing 300-vehicle backlog, Parallel is expanding manufacturing to a contract facility in Michigan while eyeing international expansion.

Episode Chapters
00:00 Parallel Systems Raises $100m
2:33 Autonomous Rail
5:14 Reviving the Inland Ports, Jobs, and Manufacturing
10:37 Diesel Volatility
12:31 Gen 3 Vehicle
17:08 Why Rail
21:54 Commercial Operations
25:57 The Internet of Freight
31:54 What's Next
35:28 AUTNMY AI

--------
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, Indices 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: https://www.roadtoautonomy.com/ae/

Follow The Road to Autonomy Indices
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, Grayson Brulte and Rob Grant discussed the launch of The Road to Autonomy Indices and break down Mobileye's pivot from licensor to robotaxi operator.
The Road to Autonomy Indices score 38 companies on commercialization, deployment, and operational maturity across robotaxi, autonomous driving licensing, autonomous trucks, and delivery bots. Built with OMEGA on public and licensed data only, every update is cryptographically sealed to the RFC 3161 standard with an open-source verification layer, making the benchmark a transparent market barometer rather than a capital catalyst.
On June 16th, Mobileye announced plans to launch a direct-to-consumer robotaxi service in a major US city in 2027, starting with roughly 100 vehicles and scaling to approximately 17,000 over five years. The press release named no city, disclosed no permits, and left no SEC filing trail, which is why the indices did not move on the headline.
The open question is not whether Mobileye can build the technology, but whether its investors have the cash and the conviction to fund billions in below-the-line cost while standing toe-to-toe with Waymo and Tesla.

Episode Chapters
00:00 Signal 1: The Road to Autonomy Indices Launch
23:44 Signal 2: Mobileye Pivots from Licensor to Robotaxi Operator
56:42 AUTNMY AI

Follow The Road to Autonomy Indices

--------
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: https://www.roadtoautonomy.com/ae/
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.