The story of Physical AI has often been sold as one of labor replacement.

But in the vineyards and raspberry fields, Burro is forging new paths - Autonomous systems that are rugged enough for the grit, affordable enough for the orchard, and smart enough to work side-by-side with a human crew.

We are standing on the edge of a world where the best grapes you may eat depend on a robot having picked them

This episode on Disruption Drive, I am joined by Kevin Leiter, COO of Burro.AI to discuss the dirty, dusty, and brilliant reality of off-road farm autonomy.

The taxi cannot feed a coin slot and probably not download many consumer software that vary city to cuty- creating a very real likelihood of empty cars just circling around causing even more congestion while Municipalities lose money.

My guest today is solving that problem - in the first week of April 2026, Meter Feeder delivered the first ever machine to machine, completely automated parking payment in the United States.

I welcome Jim Gibbs, who is building the parking payments for the Future of Mobility

Mapless AI isn’t waiting for a driverless future; they’re retrofitting today’s cars to be operated from afar, prioritizing resilient engineering and safe unit economics over integrated HD maps.

My guest is working on turning existing fleets into remote-ready assets. He believes while giants build a new autonomous vehicle, a more pertinent task is the bridge to Autonomy for the existing vehicle.

He is a Technology leader who has the stellar pedigree of the most important Engineering leaps in Autonomous Technologies: with leadership stints at Bosch, Apple and Uber ATG. And he is now a pioneer in Open Road remote access.

Welcome Jeff Johnson, CTO of Mapless AI,.

Today, we are standing at the very beginning of a digital revolution that promises to change the landscape of the earth as profoundly as the first plow.

My next guest is perhaps the most strategic operator in automation because he bridges these two seemingly impossible worlds.

He is also a veteran of the trenches of Silicon Valley. He has worked directly for the most impactful architects of our modern era: Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Michael Dell. But Tim is also a sixth generation farmer who carries the weight of Agricultural heritage in his blood.

Tim Bucher is the CEO of Agtonomy, and he’s building the robots that will drive the farms of tomorrow.

On the flip side, we see headlines dominated by miles driven and total revenue, metrics that often leave stakeholders wondering if the needle is being moved at all.

Bot Auto has decided to bypass the vanity metrics to obsess over a single, measurable, tangible bottomline: Cost Per Mile. By building a 'Transportation as a Service' model, they aren't just aiming to be safer; they’re aiming to prove that the way to win the autonomy race is to make it both safer and cheaper than the status quo.

Today, we're explore if this 'profit-first' philosophy is the key to unlocking true adoption. My guest Paul Lam, is CFO and Chief Strategy Officer at Bot Auto

My guest today is building the answer to that question.

While the automation industries races to perfect Physical AI pouring Billions to make Technology smarter, Remotics is training the Human Behind it.

In fact, they may be the first company we’ve featured that is guaranteed to create more jobs than they displace.

Joining me is Sergio Oliveira, President and Chief Growth Officer of Remotics. His team leads a global service organization dedicated to implementing human intelligence at the very edge of Physical AI, ensuring that as machines move into our world, they do so with a human touch.

Eventually getting adopted as aspirational consumers surge. Beep flips that script.

They take 'Space Age' technology of Autonomous Vehicles and putting it to work right now where it’s needed most: in our transit agencies, our universities, and our public squares.

They are solving the 'clunky' problems of the 'Old World'—congestion, labor shortages, and accessibility—by making high-tech transit a public utility rather than a private privilege.

I am joined today by Toby McGraw, Chief Revenue Officer at Beep and one of the foremost experts on Transport Systems

Forget predictable lane lines. We’re talking about "GPS-denied," high-consequence environments where "edge cases" aren't the exception—they’re the entire job description.

From Defense to Commercial Heavy Logistics, Forterra is building autonomous systems for worlds where roads don't even exist and failure isn't an option.

Joining me on this special is Andy Sussman, who leads Commercial Growth at Forterra. Andy’s career spans the trifecta of Trucking, Logistics, and Mapping (he even owns and sells ski resort maps—talk about navigating tough terrain!). ⛷️🗺️

He is exactly the person to explain why the future of autonomous fleets isn't just on our streets, but in the rugged frontiers where the GPS goes dark.

Training an autonomous vehicle or any autonomous system on the infinite list of edge cases is prohibitively expensive and technically complex.

And hence new market launches can often take more than a year.

What if you could compress that entire year into twenty-four hours?

I talk to Balint Pasztor from Diffuse Drive. Diffuse Drive is looking to bypass the physical data bottleneck through creating troves of photorealistic video replacing the grueling need for manual sensor processing.

Could it just be the key to democratizing the AV industry?

But the "one-and-done" era is dying. Today, the first purchase is just the opening act

My next guest is truly an expert on the Lifecycle of a Car.

Hakan Dogu is widely considered one of the Top 0.1% of the most influential executives in the Auto industry. He previously served as the SVP Of Aftersales for the Renault group and the CEO of Renault Turkey and also helped form the Renault Nissan Mitsubishi alliance where he pioneered the shift from volume to value.

When Hakan sees a car, he does not see a price point, but looks at it insteas as a 15 year asset.

Shalin James Anto is the Founder and CEO of Pliyt, a revolutionary design for the car of the future.

With a background deep in Safety and Interior Design of vehicles including stints at Tesla, Shalin is now working on ensuring the rideshare of the future feels like First Class travel -

One Vehicle Four Pods.

Peter is a titan in the world of urban planning and a leading voice on Mobility as an Economic Engine.

Peter argues that transport isn’t just a public utility; it is the primary driver of social mobility, labor market density, and GDP growth.

When we move people better, we create wealth faster.

Today, we dive into why the most successful cities of the future won't just be the smartest—they'll be the most fluid.

I recently sat down with Charlie Tyson, Technology Activation Director at the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), to discuss how the state is architecting the Future of Mobility.

While Michigan is the heart of the automotive world, the next frontier is Advanced Air Mobility (AAM).

We talked:

- What is Michigan's unfair advantage?

- Michigan's "Whole of Government" Strategy for Mobility

- From Defense to Commercialization both in Automotives and Air Mobility

And how do we ensure a 200 lb appliance does not fall on your head?

Michigan is building the corridors, the regulations, and the manufacturing base to own the future. Don't miss out on it.

I sat down with Jennifer Gallagher, Founder and CEO of Mach BD, to peel back the layers of the esoteric technology in automotive. Jennifer specializes in translating complex disruption into what actually matters for the driver.

We dove deep into the shift from supply-driven engineering to customer-centric experiences.

We talked:

If hardware is a commodity, what does a brand actually promise? Is it time to stop selling specs and start selling time, comfort, and connection?

With the rise of infotainment and productivity tools, is the car destined to become a "third place"?

The industry has long been pushed by regulations and suppliers. How can brands reclaim the narrative now that software—not steel—is the primary differentiator?

Can the automotive industry succeed where smartphones failed by prioritizing safety over the "attention economy"?

Jennifer’s perspective is a masterclass in how to build automotive ecosystems that don’t just move people from A to B, but actually enhance their lives.

What do you think? In 10 years, will you choose your next car based on its torque, or its ability to act as your most productive sanctuary?

I sat down with Robert Putt, the CEO and Founder of Argus AI, to discuss how they are redefining traffic safety.

Argus AI monitors and tracks traffic incidents in under 10 seconds. Compare that to the standard 6-16 minutes for commonly used navigation apps

We talked about:

The "How": achieving sub-10-second latency to detect incidents when the industry standard is ~100x higher

The Strategy: whether the goal is to disrupt current navigation giants or augment them with critical safety data.

The Infrastructure: leveraging traffic cameras and the concept of a "Universal Traffic Ontology" to normalize data and safety insights on all roads

The Vision: moving beyond just cameras to a future where AVs and commercial fleet dashcams create an explosion of data.

If you are interested in the future of mobility, safety tech, or how we handle the coming wave of visual data from AVs, you don't want to miss this one.

Colleen is that unicorn who speaks both fluent "Software" and fluent "Fleet."

While the rest of the industry obsesses over AI, she’s obsessed with the one thing that actually stops the future in its tracks: Maintaining the Car.

We dig into:

• The real mobility inflection point (it’s not what you think).
• Future-proofing jobs: What can’t a robot do?
• The economics of fleet: Who pays when the driverless car breaks?
• Bonus: We somehow managed to fit in the Austrian alps, Wiener Schnitzels and Irish pronunciations into our conversation about logistics.

Stop guessing and start listening.

But today? We are witnessing the biggest shift in mobility since the Model T.

The car is no longer just a machine. It is increasingly a device.

I recently sat down with Partha Goswami for a deep-dive podcast episode that completely reframed how I see the vehicle sitting in my driveway.

We explore the philosophy of the Connected Car.

- What is a Connected Car?

- What is the New Data that is now available?

- What are new business models that are emerging?

- Does a Smart Car lead to Smarter Cities?

- What constraints and needs get created with this profusion of data?

#FutureOfMobility #ConnectedCars #IoT #SoftwareDefinedVehicle #TechPhilosophy #AutomotiveTrends #Podcast

If you thought the Jetsons were a century away, think again.

We talk:

- What is Personal Rapid Transit (PRT)?

How does it move more people?

- How do we improve Transit infrastructure? Stations, signals and roads/rails?

- Who is adopting these innovations as first movers?

- What technological progress is making this change possible?

- What do the jobs of the future look like?

Tune in

Watch this episode for a great discussion on:

1. Civilizational imperative of public Transport

2. Barriers to adopting public transport

3. Does size matter in buses?

4. Can the humble Bus be a greater Autonomous Vehicle than a Robotaxi?

5. What is the human in the loop for an Autonomous Bus?

6. Will sporting mega events - FIFA and the Olympics - create an inflection point for Bus transport?

1. What does Mobility mean as different from Manufacturing?

2. How does building Software differ from Manufacturing and what do companies get wrong when pursuing such approaches?

3. How does Autonomy change Mobility?

4. What lessons and parallels can we draw to the Smartphone era?

Join us for another exciting episode once again

Mark has worn every hat imaginable in Automotive - CEO, Operator and now a Venture Capitalist investing in the transportation ecosystem.

We talk:

1. How do you contrast the adoption curves of Robotaxis with the equally profound disruptions in Freight?

2. What lessons translate from Freight to Robotaxis?

3. How does the "Human in the Loop" look for the new age?

4. What excites him about the disruptions in Logistics more broadly than just Fleet?

Do tune in to this mesmerizing episode.

We talk about the implications of what the current trajectory of automotive manufacturing looks like:

- How do SDVs help Automakers?

- How are Suppliers adapting as a result?

- What are the implications for Mechanics, Dealers and Technicians?

- What new Business Models emerge in Cars?

- What could possibly go wrong?

Upshift is envisioning a world where a car comes to you, runs your errands, parks itself and is cleaned and maintained for you to use when you want - all for a monthly fee.

After the many fitful starts for vehicle subscriptions, Upshift may just have gotten the business model and timing right in time for Autonomous Vehicles, Teleoperations and Fleet Connectivity.

We talk:

- The Future of Car Ownership

- The Role of Dealers and Fleet Operators

- How Upshift Has Learnt from Prior Failures of OEMs

- Mitigating Operational Risk

Do tune in and let us know what you think of Upshift's mission

When an entire industry and billions of dollars have gone in promising exponential benefits in safety, how can an organization tasked with that massive responsibility actually implement that vision?

We talk:

1. Are Zero Deaths even realistic?

2. How can an organization design such a process?

3. Does a pursuit of Zero Defects hinder commercialization?

4. Are we entering a winner take all market?

Do tune in.

We talk about one of the world's biggest challenges - building affordable, accessible and sustainable public transit.

We debate:

1. What trends are making this a unique time for public transit?

2. What is the core end goal for public transit?

3. Are rideshare and transit always in conflict?

4. How do Autonomous Vehicles affect their mission?

Ganesh spends his days thinking deeply about the implications of Mobility 4.0 and the evolution of fleet technology from data collection to advanced insights.

We talk:

1. What is Mobility 4.0?

2. Why is the Convenience Store a core enabler for Transport infrastructure?

3. What does a Multi-Energy future look like?

4. How is Fleet Repair changing?

Join us for a lively, deep discussion on Disruption Drive

Rob is a fellow of the Harvard Innovation Labs, a serial entrepreneur and ex-McKinsey.

We apply some of his product market fit frameworks to think about Autonomous Vehicles. You don't have to be a Automotive nerd to listen to this one!

Must listen.

We talk:

1. Is the industry too focused on Safety, to the exclusion of everything else?

2. How does Motional's unique Large Driving Model reduce cost of launch, through mapping and edge case modeling?

3. Is this industry a Winner Take All - and if not, what will the multiple players look like?

4. When is the true inflection point for Commercialization in Robotaxis?

And many more. Please tune in

I am joined today by two phenomenal leaders in the Autonomous Vehicle industry, talking about an often overlooked but deeply critical issue in society. @Katelyn Magney-Miller and @Samantha Lin join me in this profound discussion debating the merits and demerits of the disruption in transport.

1. Is this an issue that gets adequate coverage from communities and government?

2. How do you actively design a product, for gender safety?

3. What are ethical concerns with designing a Product but pushing the problem elsewhere - to the road perhaps?

4. How will this disruption to the Future of Work affect gender safety?

What makes an Autonomous Vehicle safe?

When should a passenger feel that a car driven by a robot is actually safe enough.

What happens when all the data in the world does not convince a passenger to "feel" safer?

Simply put, Dan has led ever major disruption in Mobility over the last 20 years. With stints at Zipcar, GM Maven, Cruise and Ford Chariot,

Dan and I chat about the inflection point of Autonomous Vehicles in 2025. -

• How is 2025 turning out to be the inflection point for Autonomous Transport?
• What does increasing investor demand for Commercialization mean for Regulators, Cities and Passengers?
• What should OEMs and Operators keep in mind to avoid the pitfalls of Carsharing models like Car2Go and Maven?
• Who is going to own the Customer Experience?

We talk: -

• Sensor Tradeoffs: What really separates Lidar, Cameras, Radar, Ultrasonics?
• How do Passenger Autonomous Vehicles differ from Delivery ones?
• Software Defined Vehicles: What is the car of the future going to look like?
• Why do Software Defined Vehicles push the envelope on Autonomy?

Join me in talking about one of the most important disruptions in the Mobility universe.

What does a remote driver mean?

What does it take to take control of an Autonomous Vehicle?

How does it drive down cost of operations for a vehicle?

How is AI changing remote driving?