2024 has been a milestone year for autonomous tech.
Waymo’s fully autonomous driver has surpassed 20 million miles, while FAA approvals now allow commercial drones to fly without visual observers, advancing air autonomy in unprecedented ways.
In this special live recording from SF Tech Week, a16z partner Erin Price-Wright moderates a panel of experts from three key domains—air, land, and sea—to explore the latest real-world deployments of autonomous systems, the impact of new chips on cost and efficiency, building full-stack solutions, managing risk, and the evolving role of regulation in driving these technologies forward.
Joining the conversation is Macario Namie, CMO of Skydio, discussing the transition from consumer drones to enterprise and government use; Vijay Patnaik, Head of Product at Applied Intuition, who shares insights on developer tools and software for autonomous vehicles; and Peter Bowman-Davis, engineering fellow at a16z, diving into maritime autonomy based on his work at Saronic.
Peter Bowman-Davis is an Engineering Fellow on a16z's American Dynamism team, where he focuses on diffusion processes for simulation and motion planning.
Erin Price-Wright is a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz where she invests in companies that promote American Dynamism, with a focus on AI for the physical world.
Vijay Patnaik is the Head of Product at Applied Intuition
Macario Namie is the CMO of Skydio
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.