Nuro is Ushering in the Licensing Era
This Week in The Autonomy Economy is presented by Koop Insurance, a specialist insurance provider focused on robotics and autonomous vehicles.
This Week in The Autonomy Economy, The Road to Autonomy Index returned 2.36%, Nuro announced a new business model—licensing, Uber expanded their partnership with Waymo to the Austin and Atlanta markets and China’s ambitions to dominate and export autonomous vehicles continues to grow.
Earlier in the week, Applied Intuition hosted Intersect 24 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. It was a wonderful event that put AI and software at the forefront of automotive. The Road to Autonomy founder, Grayson Brulte moderated the From the Ground Up: How Automotive and AI Startups Shape the Industry panel.
During the event, it became very evident that Applied Intuition is one of the most important companies in autonomy today. We would highly recommend attending Intersect 25 next year. During our time in Silicon Valley, we met with Nuro and several autonomous driving startups and it became very evident to us that we are in the midst of a major shift in autonomy.
A shift that is going to usher in the licensing era. Licensing was top of mind for all of the companies that we met with during our trip. Look for more announcements related to licensing and autonomy in the coming quarters. Licensing is going to unlock the personally owned autonomous vehicle. (hint, hint)
Today at 2pm EST we will be releasing the second episode of Autonomy Markets, co-hosted by Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk. This week, Grayson and Walter discuss Silicon Valley’s changing autonomous vehicle landscape, licensing, experiences and personally owned autonomous vehicles.
Later in the week on Tuesday, we will be releasing a The Road to Autonomy podcast conversation with Finch Fulton, Government Affairs and Policy Advisor, K&L Gates about about what impact the 2024 Presidential Election could have on autonomous vehicle and truck regulations.
Subscribe today on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts to be notified when the podcasts are released.
If there are topics that you would like to see us cover in the future, simply send an email to hello (at) RoadToAutonomy.com.
Uber and Waymo parent Alphabet is a The Road to Autonomy Index component companies
Subscribe to This Week in The Autonomy Economy™
A weekly newsletter featuring insight and commentary on the autonomy economy™ and how the financial markets are viewing its emergence.
What’s Moving the Markets
Nuro is Ushering in the Licensing Era
On September 11th, Nuro announced a new business model—licensing. This announcement is bigger than just Nuro, it ushers in the licensing era in autonomy. As we have spoken about and written about for months now, we believe that licensing autonomous driving software will be one of the most lucrative aspects of autonomy.
Nuro clearly understands the economics of licensing, as they have pivoted the business away from solely developing and commercializing delivery bots to licensing. We visited with Nuro on September 9th and had an opportunity to ride in the Nuro autonomous vehicle.
We walked away from our meeting and ride impressed. The pivot to licensing was the right move at the right time for Nuro. Their announcement will only accelerate the shift towards licensing as a viable business model for autonomous driving startups.
Nuro is one of the first companies besides Tesla to announce licensing as an extension of their business model. This announcement is going to turn into a trend as more licensing agreements/announcements are on the horizon. While we are not at liberty to say who did a deal with who just yet, we can simply say that the era of licensing autonomous driving software is upon us.
Our take: The autonomous driving business model ecosystem is almost complete. Nuro’s brilliant pivot is just another step towards completing the ecosystem.
Tesla is a The Road to Autonomy Index component company
Uber Continues To Be The Platform for Autonomy
Dara Khosrowshahi is running a masterclass on how to operate a business that will inherently benefit from autonomous vehicles. On September 13th, Uber announced an expanded partnership with Waymo where Waymo will be exclusively available on the Uber platform in both Austin and Atlanta beginning in early 2025.
As part of the expanded partnership, Uber will manage and dispatch a fleet of Waymo’s fully autonomous, all-electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles that will grow to hundreds over time. Riders who request an UberX, Uber Green, Uber Comfort, or Uber Comfort Electric may be matched with a Waymo for qualifying trips.
Pricing a Waymo vehicle to match UberX and Uber Green pricing is masterful. We could envision a future where a majority of Uber’s UberX rides are in autonomous vehicles. Autonomous vehicles eliminate one of Uber’s biggest issues with UberX, which in our opinion is the inconsistency of the product.
Autonomous vehicles offer a consistent ride experience that is impossible today with UberX. In the August 11th edition of This Week in The Autonomy Economy we wrote about how Uber has become the platform for autonomy. The expanded partnership with Waymo only strengthens our conviction about the strength of the Uber platform and the role it will play into the autonomy ecosystem.
Our take: Dara Khosrowshahi is one of the most important executives in autonomy today. Mr. Khosrowshahi and the team at Uber are completely changing the game, while creating an immense amount of shareholder value.
Uber is currently ranked #1 with a bullish outlook on the AUTONOMY LEADERBOARD in the software platforms category.
Waymo is currently ranked #1 with a bullish outlook on the AUTONOMY LEADERBOARD in the autonomous vehicle category.
Uber and Waymo parent Alphabet is a The Road to Autonomy Index component companies
First Electric Vehicles, Next Autonomous Vehicles
China’s ambitions to dominate and export autonomous vehicles to the world are intensifying. The development and commercialization of autonomy is now a priority of President Xi Jinping and the ruling CCP.
Today, America leads in the development and commercialization of autonomous vehicles. Tomorrow, that lead could vanish into thin air as the regulatory environment for autonomous vehicles in the U.S. is currently uncertain. Uncertainty is holding back investment in the sector, and it could lead to a long-term economic decline if the status quo continues.
To fix the uncertainty and truly unlock one of the great inventions in the history of man, policymakers in the United States need to come together and put aside their differences for the benefit of the U.S. economy. It’s time to stand up to organized labor and the special interests that want to derail autonomy for their own selfish gain.
If policymakers do not step up and do the right thing, history will once again repeat itself, and unfortunately America will be at a major disadvantage both economically and politically. A disadvantage that will cause undue economic harm for generations.
The China ecosystem is designed to accelerate the commercialization of autonomous driving.
– Michael Dunne, Dunne Insights as told to the Wall Street Journal – September 10, 2024
While China’s ecosystem is designed to accelerate the commercialization of autonomous driving, current U.S. regulations are designed to decelerate commercialization.
The current U.S. regulatory environment is designed to stifle the commercialization of autonomous vehicles, while ensuring that special interests get to have a say in the matter. But why? Why hold the U.S. economy hostage?
While special interests actively work on holding the U.S. economy hostage, China is playing chess. It’s time to wake up, or soon your next autonomous vehicle just might be made in China.
Our take: Change is going to come. Do we want it to be a change that benefits the U.S. economy and leads to economic growth, or do we want it to be a change that once again puts the U.S. economy at a disadvantage?
Piquing Our Interest
Blindsided by The News Over the last four years, VW has spent almost €12bn building Cariad, with little to show for the investment. As VW looks to pivot and cut costs, the company reportedly blindsided Cariad employees including Peter Bosch by keeping them in the dark about the $5 billion joint venture with Rivian.
May Mobility Expands to the Bay Area May Mobility has expanded autonomous vehicle operations to the Bay Area in partnership with the Contra Costa Transportation Authority. The service is currently available in Martinez, CA.
Mobileye Is No Longer Developing LiDAR The news should not come as a surprise as Mobileye is struggling. YTD, Mobileye’s stock is down 73.61%, while the S&P has returned 18.62%. The decision to cancel their internal LiDAR development program appears to be purely a cost cutting measure as Intel prepares to sell up to 88% of their stake in the company. The timing is not great and Mobileye’s days as an independent publicly traded company appear to be coming to an end. The big question is who buys Mobileye and at what valuation?
Using Autonomous Vehicles for Hurricane Evacuations Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin modeled what this could look like and what the impact would be on human lives. The potential to save thousands of lives is there, but will this ever become a reality?
Huawei Enables Autonomous Driving Over-The-Air On September 10th, Huawei pushed out an over-the-air update that will upgrade every vehicle equipped with their HarmonyOS Intelligent Driving Unit to ADS 3.0, unlocking “full self-driving” capabilities. You can watch a video of a Huawei powered car driving autonomously in China here.
Social Buzz
Batman… it’s me… CyberCab!
Photos of a heavily camouflaged Tesla robotaxi / CyberCab began appearing on X and Reddit this week. As Tesla prepares for 10/10, the company is ramping up testing and data collection in and around the Warner Bros Studio lot in Burbank, CA. The testing/data collection reportedly began on August 28th.
Our take: We have been driving a Tesla with FSD 12.5 for over a week now (thank you @WholeMarsBlog for the referral code), and we are thoroughly impressed. While the system is not fully autonomous yet, it continues to impress us on a daily basis. This furthers our conviction that it is only a matter of time until Tesla “cracks” full self-driving.
Tesla is currently ranked #1 with a bullish outlook on the AUTONOMY LEADERBOARD in the personally owned autonomous vehicle category.
Tesla is a The Road to Autonomy Index component company
Is Waymo Testing in Toledo, Ohio?
An unverified photo was shared on X that reportedly shows a Waymo vehicle in Toledo, Ohio. Is Waymo mapping or testing in Toledo? Or is this one of the Detroit test vehicles that took an extended (56 minute) drive down I-75 to test Waymo’s highway driving abilities?
Our take: Waymo is ramping up testing as they continue to expand into new markets. According to Morgan Stanley research, Waymo has mapped over 25 cities in the U.S. Is a midwest deployment in the works?
Waymo is currently ranked #1 with a bullish outlook on the AUTONOMY LEADERBOARD in the autonomous vehicle category.
Waymo parent Alphabet is a The Road to Autonomy Index component company
The Road to Autonomy Index® / Weekly Performance
The Road to Autonomy Index® is a high-definition lens into the emerging world of autonomous vehicles. It is the world’s first and only pure-play index designed to measure the performance of the autonomous vehicle/truck market.
For the week of September 9th, The Road to Autonomy Index returned 2.36%, the S&P 500 returned 4.02% and the NASDAQ 100 returned 5.93%. The Road to Autonomy Index underperformed the S&P 500 by 1.66% and underperformed the NASDAQ 100 by 3.57%.
Year to Date (YTD), The Road to Autonomy Index has returned 11.25%
Follow The Road to Autonomy Index on Apple Stocks | Google Finance
The Road to Autonomy Index Component Companies
For more information on The Road to Autonomy Index and to learn about licensing and marketing opportunities, please email hello (at) roadtoautonomy.com
Latest The Road to Autonomy Podcast
Daimler Truck’s Approach to Developing Autonomous Trucks
Sumanoharan Narayanan, Director of Engineering, Automated Technology Group, Daimler Trucks North America joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the development of the autonomous-ready Freightliner Cascadia.
Watch on YouTube | Spotify | X
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Tuesday, September 10, 2024
Latest Autonomy Markets Podcast
Autonomy: A Threat or Strength for Uber? Waymo’s Unforced Error and the Affordability of Delivery
Grayson Brulte and Walter Piecyk, discuss Wall Street’s perspective on autonomy, the implications that autonomy could have on Uber and whether it’a s strength or weakness for Uber. Along with the impact of Tesla entering the robotaxi market and the growth of Waymo.
Watch on YouTube | Spotify | X
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Sunday, September 8, 2024
Subscribe to This Week in The Autonomy Economy™
A weekly newsletter featuring insight and commentary on the autonomy economy™ and how the financial markets are viewing its emergence.
All price references and market forecasts are as of the date that this newsletter has been sent. The Road to Autonomy is not providing any financial, economic, legal, accounting, or tax advice or recommendations in this newsletter. The information contained in this newsletter does not constitute investment advice and should not be relied upon to evaluate any potential transaction.
Inclusion of a security within The Road to Autonomy Index® is not a recommendation by The Road to Autonomy Indices LLC to buy, sell, or hold such security, nor is it considered to be investment advice.
