COVID-19 continues to take its toll, as the gang is a little extra quarantine-drunk in this discussion episode. Alex, Kirsten, Damon and Ed jump around between topics as diverse as: Cannonball Runs in the time of COVID, self-disinfecting bikes, the anti-touchscreens-in-cars backlash, cringey Model Y "off-roading" videos, and the emissions standard rollback. Buckle up!

With so much pessimism in the world of autonomous drive technology, we thought we'd highlight a company that has built a solid, customer-focused business around automated vehicles. Nancy Post is the Director of John Deere's Intelligent Solutions Group, and has been working on the agricultural machinery giant's automation systems for decades. She explains how John Deere's automation efforts started, how they have evolved, and where they are going now.

The collapse of Starsky Robotics has been the subject of rumor and speculation in the autonomous drive technology world for months, but now founder Stefan Seltz-Axmacher is ready to set the record straight. He joins The Autonocast to discuss his recent blog post on The Fall of Starsky, the lessons learned from his time running a startup, where the autonomy and trucking spaces are going, and what he's doing next.

Founding Autonocast co-host Damon Lavrinc is back from a stint working at a variety of mobility companies, and he's come at a time when there is so much to think about and discuss. On this classic wide-ranging discussion episode, the gang considers the seismic shocks running through the mobility tech world, which companies are surprisingly well-positioned, which need to rethink things, where they can pivot to, and how long some can survive. Plus: what happens to urbanism in a pandemic, how design will evolve, why Waymo's fundraising round matters, what killed Starsky and much more.

Every year, the Navigant Research Autonomous Leaderboard report ranks the various players in the autonomous mobility space and every year it prompts much wailing and gnashing of teeth from fans of companies who trail in the rankings. To help explain the factors that go into these rankings and the methodologies used measure them, we are joined by the report's author Sam Abuelsamid. A widely-respected analyst covering autos and autonomy, Sam was last on The Autonocast back in January of 2018 when he explained that year's Leaderboard in episode #47.

With COVID-19 bringing any sense of normalcy to an abrupt end, the gang pauses their recent parade of high-profile guests in favor of an old-fashioned discussion episode. Between some of the big recent headlines in mobility and the still-evolving impact of certain novel viruses, there's a lot to discuss in this week's wide-ranging conversation. Ed explains how EV technology allows GM to revisit the brand brand strategy that built (and nearly destroyed) its US-market dominance, Kirsten shares her reflections on post-coronavirus "design for operations" for autonomous vehicles, and Alex rants from an undisclosed location, where he is currently in full-blown prepper mode.

For much of the last few years, autonomous robotaxis were simply presumed to be a technological problem whose economics would be easily competitive. Now, with human-driven ridehailing still struggling to turn a profit, more and more companies are realizing that the robotaxi business won't necessarily be an easy one. Perhaps the best view of the robotaxi's economic challenge comes from Ashley Nunes, a Harvard researcher whose study of autonomous taxi economics in San Francisco revealed that the massive margins once anticipated will be tough to deliver on, and that maximizing utilization will be the key to a viable business. Nunes joins the show to explain his research, explore the underlying assumptions and discuss the business case challenges ahead for autonomous ride hailing.

Joshua Schachter is well-known in the mobility tech world as a savvy angel and venture capitalist, but not everyone knows that he (more specifically, his "Self-Racing Cars" event) played a major role in making The Autonocast happen. On today's episode, we discuss the mobility tech investing environment, how Joshua analyzes potential investments and how Self-Racing Cars came to be the AV sector's punk rock event. For more information on how to attend this year's Self Racing Cars, check out selfracingcars.com.

Teleoperation used to be seen as the autonomous drive sector's dirty little secret, the kind of capability that stoked suspicion about the readiness of the technology. Ironically, as AVs get closer and closer to maturity the need for teleoperation capabilities is becoming increasingly normalized as a fundamental part of the stack. At this year's CES, Ed spoke with the leadership of Phantom Auto, a leader in the teleoperation and remote guidance space, to find out how their business is evolving.

Fresh off the heels of tumultuous hype cycles in both shared electric scooters and autonomous vehicles, the idea of "riderless scooters" can seem like the immaculate hypeball. But, as today's episode shows, the ability to move shared scooters remotely is actually a meaningful potential solution to the operational challenges facing shared scooter companies. Dmitry Shevelenko of the scooter teleoperations company Tortoise joins the crew to explain the economic and technological opportunity underlying his vision of riderless scooters.