Autonomous Vehicles (Self-Driving Cars) will fundamentally transform society.

Our insights into autonomous vehicles are listed below in the form of articles for your perusal.

A Deep Dive into DeepMap’s RoadMemory

A Deep Dive into DeepMap’s RoadMemory is a free-flowing, unstructured conversation between Brulte & Company Co-Founder Grayson Brulte and Mark Wheeler, CTO & Co-Founder of DeepMap.

The discussion took place last week in conjunction with the DeepMap RoadMemory ™ announcement. Grayson zoomed-in from sunny Palm Beach, Florida, while Mark zoomed-in from beautiful Northern California.

We’ve divided the 17-minute interview into 7 parts, each posted on YouTube, with links provided below. For easy reading, we’ve included one quote from each part.

Grayson zoomed in from sunny Palm Beach, Florida, while Mark zoomed-in from beautiful Northern California. We’ve divided the 17-minute interview into 7 parts, each posted on YouTube, with links provided below. For easy reading, we’ve included one quote from each part.

Part 1 (2:28 mins)

Grayson: What is RoadMemory and why is it so important to DeepMap?

Mark: RoadMemory is complementary to our current product, HDR. RoadMemory is supporting a couple of trends in the industry. The first trend is that OEMs across the board are looking to extend their ADAS capabilities in the L2+ level, the hands-off level. They’re looking to improve capabilities, performance, and safety. The other trend is that a lot of these L2+ capable vehicles are now in the world — and more are coming — capable of recording and transmitting what they’re seeing back to the cloud. RoadMemory is designed to take advantage of that.

Part 2 (2:38 mins)

Grayson: With the growth of L2+, do you see a market opportunity where RoadMemory could enhance the consumer experience and enhance the value of your partner’s brands?

Mark: Exactly. As these vehicles roll out, they have the capability to perceive the world and collect data and send it back to the cloud. What’s missing is a way to take advantage of that. RoadMemory allows OEMs to build their own map, an HD map that can be used on their L2+ vehicles.

Part 3 (1:55 mins)

Grayson: Are you going to use crowdsourcing techniques? Can you shed some light on that please?

Mark: RoadMemory is from the ground up a crowdsourced map. We’ll be ingesting data from OEMs’ L2+ fleets. They have vehicles equipped with cameras, IMUs, GNSS, odometry, and sometimes radar. We can ingest that data and make sense of it.

Part 4 (2:33 mins)

Grayson: The term crowdsourcing is often thrown around. How would you define crowdsourcing as it relates to a map?

Mark: DeepMap has been built on the concept of crowdsourcing from the beginning. Crowdsourcing means that all the vehicles that are equipped with autonomous capability, whether it’s L2+, L3, or L4, can contribute back information that it’s seeing in real-time to help keep the map up to date or even create the map in the first place. The key is that once you have sufficient coverage of vehicles in an area, the map becomes more and more up-to-date and fresh and accurate, and safe. This is key for scaling out autonomous vehicles.

Part 5 (2:29 mins)

Grayson: You have an OEM over here that offers LiDAR, you have another OEM over here that offers a camera…. there’s no standard solution for L2 systems across the global marketplace. Can RoadMemory work with any type of sensor no matter if it’s from an OEM on this side or an OEM on that side? Is it agnostic?

Mark: Yes, that’s part of DeepMap’s DNA.

Part 6 (3:53 mins)

Grayson: On May 28th in Crunchbase, you wrote an article with your co-founder James Wu that was really interesting about mapping and machines. There was something that stood out to me. You said that the era we are entering now promises to be the most exciting and transformative. Why? I want to pull back for a minute because you’re seeing something. What were you seeing when you made that statement?

Mark: We’re seeing a lot of trends in technology of all kinds converging to the vision that we had when we started the company. We believed LiDAR was going to play an important role. That’s happening left and right — all these LiDAR companies are getting lots of traction. As the capabilities of the LiDARs have improved, the prices have come down. Plus, all the things happening on the compute side and deep learning…. On the mapping side, we’ve made a ton of progress towards our vision of building a map engine that can support data from all kinds of different cars.

Part 7 (2:42 mins)

Grayson: What would you like the viewers to take away about DeepMap as an innovative company and your new product, RoadMemory?

Mark: We can support a company’s vision, growing from L2+ all the way to L4 in a very smooth and economical way, and we’re eager to work with OEMs on this. Grayson: The future is bright, the future is autonomous, and the future is DeepMap. Mark, it’s so great to chat with you once again and thanks for the time-sharing this insight with us.

As featured on DeepMap’s Medium Blog on June 8, 2021.

Resort Wear, Instagram & Autonomous Vehicles

The future of in-vehicle shopping is boundless for brands.

In 1931, Italian designer Elsa Schiaparelli introduced the world to culottes which started the modern-day trend of resort wear. This trend gained significant momentum during the golden age of flying in 1950s and 1960s. The term resort wear entered the lexicon in the 1980s when designers Calvin Klein and Oscar de la Renta’s resort wear collections gained significant traction with sophisticated shoppers.

In 1983, Calvin Klein was quoted telling The New York Times that “he does almost as much business for resort as he does for fall”. Today, resort wear has an estimated market value north of $20 billion and growing. In 2018, the global travel market (encompassing resort wear) was valued at $8.8 trillion, accounting for 10.5 percent of GDP.

This year, the global travel market is projected to grow by 4 percent. With the growth of travel comes the growth of experiences. For example, Airbnb has seen 7x year-over-year growth in its experiences business since the company first introduced the product in 2016. Experiences such as those found on Airbnb are consistently being shared on Instagram with over 1 billion monthly users who actively use the platform.

The growth of the global travel market combined with experiences and the ability for individuals to showcase their adventures to the world is an enticing opportunity for brands, especially those specializing in resort wear.

One brand, in particular, Lilly Pulitzer famously worn by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy is an iconic American brand. With Lilly’s colorful prints and youthful spirit, the brand continues to thrive to this day. In 2018, the Lilly Pulitzer brand which is owned by Oxford Industries accounted for over 85% of Oxford’s revenue.

With revenue growth, colorful prints and a brand that is extremely well known in resort towns around the world such as Palm Beach, Florida opportunities abound. These opportunities reside beyond the typical realms of fashion and could expand into the world of mobility.

Through licensing deals, brands such as Lilly Pulitzer could design bespoke autonomous resort vehicles and partner with mobility service providers to chauffeur guests around famous resort towns. These vehicles will be completely designed to reflect the look and feel of the brand while offering exclusive in-vehicle shopping experiences.

A day at the beach or an evening at the gala could turn into an exclusive shopping experience. These experiences would be highly coveted and Instagramable, building buzz and demand for Lilly Pulitzer’s fashionable line of clothing and accessories.

It is not just brands such as Lilly Pulitzer which will benefit from the introduction and adoption of autonomous vehicles. It is all brands. Brands are the currency that fuels Instagram. On Instagram, 80% of users follow a business and over 500 million watch Instagram stories every single day.

Fashion brands with resort wear collections have a unique and competitive advantage as everyone wants to look good on their Instagramable vacations. Individuals dressing fashionably on vacation increases year-round sales of seasonal clothing and accessories.

Resort wear changed the way individuals dress for holiday. Instagram changed the way individuals present themselves to the world. Autonomous vehicles will change everything we once knew about vacationing and unlock boundless opportunities for brands.

Resort Wear, Instagram & Autonomous Vehicles is an article written by Brulte & Company Co-Founder Grayson Brulte.

Policy Teams are the Autonomous Rockstars

Individuals working at autonomous vehicle companies on policy and government relations are the unsung heroes of the industry.

This talented group of professionals are the true unsung heroes of the industry. While engineers are leading an incredible effort to make vehicles drive themselves in all conditions on any road, in any city around the world, their incredible engineering feats would be squandered if it was not for their policy teams.

Policy teams are actively educating elected officials on automated technology and keeping their staff informed on the technology’s progress while developing deep levels of trust. At the same time, these teams are working with industry organizations such as SAE International through their SAE Demo Days initiative, PAVE (Partners for Automated Vehicle Education) and public interest groups such as The National Safety Council (NSC) and Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

SAE Demo Days are a series of autonomous vehicle demo days where the public has the unique opportunity to experience the technology first hand by taking a ride in an autonomous vehicle. After the ride, guests are able to speak with industry leaders and ask questions regarding how technology will impact and eventually improve their daily lives.

Guests who have attended an SAE Demo Day in Los Angeles, Tampa, Babcock Ranch, and Detroit, have walked away with a positive impression of automated technology. An overwhelming majority of riders who have attended SAE Demo Days are excited about the technology and are willing to give up control of the vehicle to become a passenger.

This is what policy teams do best. They build and maintain trust. Trust between elected officials and the industry. Trust between regulators and the industry. Trust between the public and the industry. Trust between investors, Wall Street, and the industry. Establishing and maintaining trust between all parties is the glue that holds this industry together and without it, there is no autonomous vehicle industry

The secret to building and maintaining this trust is diversity. These individuals come from unique and sometimes interesting backgrounds, which are both necessary and exciting for a new emerging industry.

With such diverse professional backgrounds as city goverment, corrections, federal government, housing, journalism, legislative aides and music, these talented individuals offer a unique insight into regulations, policy, and most importantly personalities. They are able to maneuver in ways most cannot comprehend. They have deep relationships across the board and most importantly those relationships extend across party lines.

These individuals are not experienced automotive executives looking at the world through oil-tinted glasses. Instead, they are seasoned entrepreneurs who see the world through trust and relationships.

Relationships run deep and the level of loyalty between this special group is unheard of in traditional industries. Policy teams actively collaborate together and share notes with one another on the best political strategy to ensure the ideal outcome for the industry and their respective companies.

This level of collaboration ensures that when engineers develop Level 4 and Level 5 autonomous vehicles, the proper regulations are in place for deployment and the public is ready and comfortable for an autonomous future.

Without policy teams, the entire autonomous vehicle industry would collapse, investors would lose billions of dollars and the public would never get to experience the future of mobility. This is why policy teams are the autonomous rockstars.

Policy Teams are the Autonomous Rockstars is an article written by Brulte & Company Co-Founder Grayson Brulte.

Public Acceptance of Autonomous Vehicles

In this episode of The Road To Autonomy, Grayson Brulte discusses how the autonomous vehicle industry is coming together to build trust and public acceptance of autonomous vehicles at Self-Racing Cars 2018.

From Autonomous Vehicle Demo Days to outreach and education, the industry is working together to ensure that we can usher in the future of autonomy for the benefit of society.

Tune in to learn how the autonomous vehicle industry is coming together to build trust and public acceptance of autonomous vehicles.

► Watch every episode of The Road To Autonomy

Florida is Setting the Pace in Autonomous Vehicle Innovation

The regulatory environment in Florida under the leadership of Governor Scott and State Senator Brandes is helping to usher in the Autonomy Economy.

On the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s Bottom Line public affairs program, I discuss innovation in the autonomous vehicle community and Florida’s leadership in autonomous vehicle regulation.

Every aspect of transportation and mobility is going to change. For example, a child born in the last four years will never drive a vehicle on a public road. Full level 5 autonomous vehicles will take children to and from school with the parents of those children being fully in charge of the experience as when the child can exit the vehicle.

The future of transporting children to school in autonomous vehicles will be possible in Florida because of the regulatory environment that the State of Florida has created under the leadership of Governor Scott and State Senator Brandes.

Florida is opening the doors to allow the future of innovation to prosper. From children riding to school in autonomous vehicles to the tourism industry developing niche autonomous vehicle services, we are only beginning to scratch the surface of what is possible.

New businesses will be created in Florida around autonomy due to the regulatory environment and these homegrown businesses will help the State to usher in the Autonomy Economy.