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Join panelists at the just concluded Curbivore conference as they discuss how autonomy has progressed over the last few years, the challenges the industry still faces, and what it will take to accelerate progress as AV services begin to scale. This panel featured Pat Tsen (Deputy Executive Director, California Public Utilities Commission), Phillip Pierce (City Policy Lead, Zoox), Jon Miller (Chief Business Officer, Nexar), Ashwini Anburajan (CEO, Obi), and Aaron Park (Chief Business Development Officer, Robotis), and was moderated by Alan Ohnsman (Senior Editor, Forbes).
The conversation explores how AV deployments are evolving in real-world environments, including Zoox’s current rollout and safety approach, the regulatory and operational hurdles that remain, and how agencies like the CPUC are handling approvals and data reporting. It also covers early pricing dynamics and consumer perception, how companies like Nexar support AV safety as services scale, the growing role of autonomous robotics and emerging use cases, and how industry players can better align to standardize testing, improve edge case readiness, and support safe, scalable growth.
Chapters
(00:00) Introduction, and overview
(06:25) Zoox’s current AV deployment position and the challenges so far
(08:51) Steps to a more harmonized system of approval for robotaxis (Federal and state), and the CPUC’s place in this system
(12:40) How the CPUC handles data reporting for AV companies in the testing phase, and what qualifies as an autonomous vehicle deployment
(14:40) Early pricing trends, and customer perception insights in current robotaxi deployments
(21:30) Zoox’s approach to safety and how they handle edge cases
(24:20) How Nexar supports AV companies and their safety cases as services begin to scale
(30:40) How the autonomous robotics market is developing and how their use cases are evolving.
(34:58) Standardizing AV testing and validation, and how to better prepare for edge cases
(42:30) Consumer perception of AVs/pricing and how it has evolved
(46:20) Projections for the future of autonomy
- Harry
