Autonomy is no longer a moonshot—it’s a market
AI Summary
Casser Unus, Co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition
- Describes autonomy in vehicles, comparing mobile OS to those in safety-critical vehicles.
- Applied Intuition focuses on vehicle intelligence, building autonomy software and tools.
- The company has a substantial presence in both the commercial and defense sectors.
Jason Brown, Government Business Leader
- Leads the government-focused operations, emphasizing the company’s broad engagement with the Department of Defense (DoD) across all domains (air, maritime, land).
Backgrounds:
- Casser: Immigrated from Pakistan, sold a startup to Google, involved in self-driving initiatives.
- Jason: Ties to various defense initiatives and projects.
Autonomy Trends:
- Current developments viewed as a production phase for autonomy technology.
- Contrasting models of autonomy: Tesla (driver present) vs. Whimo (no driver).
- Whimo represents a more fully autonomous approach, while Tesla hybrids still require human oversight.
- Future expectation of convergence between these technologies with scaling and monetization of autonomy.
Commercial Applications:
- Growth in intelligent vehicles not just for consumer markets but applicable to various industries like agriculture, mining, and defense.
Defense Sector Improvements:
- Insight into developing dual-use technologies bridging commercial and defense needs.
- Significant effort to evolve legacy vehicles with autonomy capabilities using commercial tools and software.
- Recognition of the importance of a diverse team, including engineers with backgrounds in both commercial industries and the military.
Concluding Thoughts:
- Overall expectation of the proliferation of autonomy solutions across multiple sectors over the next decade, reflecting on historical developments and future projections.
- Closing remarks about the importance of curiosity-driven and mission-focused engineering as vital to future innovations in autonomy.