a16z Podcast

a16z Podcast: Society Under Construction — Modernizing Infrastructure

Anthony Foxx, Keller Rinaudo, Jase Wilson, and Matthew Colford

Posted August 25, 2017

What is “infrastructure” actually? In the 19th and 20th century, that usually meant the transportation systems supporting roadways, airports, trains… but we don’t even really know yet what it might potentially mean in the age of rapidly changing technology, autonomous vehicles, drones, and self-driving cars. In this episode, a16z’s Matthew Colford discusses the infrastructure of the future with Anthony Foxx, former secretary of transportation under the Obama administration and former mayor of Charlotte, North Carolina; Keller Rinaudo, CEO of Zipline; and Jase Wilson, CEO of Neighborly.

The truth of the matter, says Secretary Foxx, is that we are still a society under construction. How do we think about not just modernizing the 19th century structures we inherited but making new infrastructure for the future anew — as well as the possibilities of democratizing and crowdsourcing urban planning and public projects?

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The a16z Podcast discusses the most important ideas within technology with the people building it. Each episode aims to put listeners ahead of the curve, covering topics like AI, energy, genomics, space, and more.

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