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EP60: The Smart Wheel Revolution: Inside indiGOtech with CEO Will Graylin

The Future of Ground Transportation · 2026-03-04 · 41 min

0:00--:--

Key moments - from our scoring

Substance score

47 / 100

Five dimensions, 20 points each

Insight Density9 / 20
Originality8 / 20
Guest Caliber13 / 20
Specificity & Evidence12 / 20
Conversational Craft5 / 20

indiGOtech represents a comprehensive vertical integration strategy in urban electric vehicle delivery and ride-hail services, built on MIT's patented smart wheel motor technology with 105 patents. The company's approach combines purpose-built EVs with innovative charging infrastructure (acquired through Evercharge) and last-mile logistics capabilities. Will Graylin brings extensive startup-to-scale experience from previous ventures including LoopPay (which became Samsung Pay), and articulates a framework called the "four big M's" - market, magic sauce (differentiated IP), money model, and management - as critical success factors. indiGOtech's vehicle lineup ranges from $25,000 compact electric vehicles for campus/city delivery to $35-37,000 transit vans launching in 2027-2028. The charging side leverages smart power load balancing technology to install 5-6x more chargers on the same power infrastructure, already serving major fleets including UPS, Amazon, FedEx, Avis, and Hertz. For B2B fleet operators and logistics companies, this episode provides actionable insights on the transition from invention to innovation, unit economics in EV logistics, and the realistic timeline for autonomous vehicle adoption.

Key takeaways

  • →Smart wheel technology with two degrees of freedom enables flat vehicle floors, lighter chassis, smaller batteries, and improved ride quality compared to traditional vehicle architectures.
  • →Smart power charging solutions through real-time load balancing can deliver 5-6x more chargers on the same power infrastructure, significantly reducing fleet uptime issues and charging labor costs.
  • →The path from autonomous vehicle adoption requires 5-10 years to reach 10-15% of delivery market penetration, progressing city-by-city with regulatory readiness and technological maturation varying by location.
  • →Vertical integration across vehicles, charging, and logistics operations is essential for achieving competitive unit economics and user experience in the ride-hail and delivery market.
  • →The 'four big M's' - market timing, patented magic sauce, money model with strong unit economics, and experienced management team - are the critical success factors differentiating inventions from scalable innovations.

In this episode

  1. 1indiGOtech and the Smart Wheel Revolution
  2. 2From Invention to Innovation: The Four Big M's Framework
  3. 3Charging Solutions and Fleet Electrification
  4. 4Vehicle Pricing and Product Roadmap
  5. 5Autonomous Vehicles and the Future of Ride-Hail Delivery
  6. 6The Hybrid Transition and Last-Mile Challenges
  7. 7AI and Technology Acceleration

Mentioned

indiGOtechWill GraylinTeslaChevy VoltTesla Model SMITSamsung PayLooppayFedExFoxconnEverchargeWaymo

Guests

Will Graylin

Topics in this episode

Smart wheel motor technology with two degrees of freedomindiGOtech vertical integration strategyMIT innovation commercializationEvercharge acquisitionSmart power load balancing charging technologyLevel 2 and Level 3 EV charging hardwareUrban ride-hail and delivery marketsAutonomous vehicle adoption timelinesFleet electrification challengesUnit economics in EV transportation

Questions this episode answers

How does indiGOtech's smart wheel technology improve vehicle efficiency and ride quality?

The smart wheel motor has two degrees of freedom enabling independent propulsion and active suspension at each corner, creating a flat floor with no obstructing motors or transmissions, resulting in lighter vehicles, smaller batteries, improved stability, and better ride smoothness.

How much can smart power load balancing increase the number of EV chargers on existing fleet power infrastructure?

Smart power technology with real-time load balancing enables fleets to install 5-6 times more chargers on the same available power supply, so 200 amps of power could support 20-30 chargers instead of just five.

What is the realistic timeline for autonomous vehicles to replace human-driven delivery and ride-hail miles?

indiGOtech projects 5-10 years to reach 10-15% autonomous market penetration in deliveries, with adoption progressing city-by-city based on regulatory readiness and technological maturity, followed by accelerated growth once the inflection point is reached.

What are indiGOtech's vehicle price points for its electric delivery fleet?

The company offers compact vehicles at $25,000-$27,000 with 90-100 cubic feet of space, mid-size mixed-use vehicles at similar pricing, and larger transit van equivalents at $35,000-$37,000, launching in 2027-2028 after homologation.

Who are indiGOtech's major fleet customers for charging infrastructure?

The company serves major fleets including UPS, Amazon, FedEx, Avis, Hertz, and PepsiCo, with its Evercharge acquisition making it one of the top-tier players in fleet electrification charging solutions.

What our scoring noted

Our reviewer’s read on each dimension, with quotes from the episode.

Insight Density

9 / 20

The episode contains a handful of genuinely useful data points - the charging load-balancing math, AV market share statistics, and vehicle price ranges - but these are surrounded by extended stretches of generic startup philosophy, AI platitudes, and motivational throat-clearing that dilute the useful-per-minute rate significantly.

if you have 200amps for example, and if you have 40amp chargers, most people just put in five chargers... Whereas we can do real time load balancing. We can help you set up 20, 25, 30 chargers
today, uh, worldwide they're about 4 trillion miles that are being driven by individual owners... roughly about 1%. There's about, you know, 40 billion of these ride hail miles out of 4 trillion miles

Originality

8 / 20

The smart wheel motor's two-degree-of-freedom architecture and the fleet charging load-balancing framing are genuinely non-obvious, but the four M's framework is standard startup canon and the AI section is entirely recycled takes about agricultural revolutions and snowblowers that add nothing a business podcast listener hasn't heard dozens of times.

we literally reinvented the wheel where Professor Hunter had created this um, smart wheel motor with two degrees of freedom meaning it can do um propulsion in each corner independently and active suspension
the four big M's of um, of um, success. M number one of course is the market... M number two, which is what's your magic sauce

Guest Caliber

13 / 20

Will Graylin is a legitimate serial entrepreneur with a real, verifiable exit - LoopPay into Samsung Pay - and is currently running a capital-backed hardware company with named institutional investors and enterprise fleet customers; however, much of the episode operates in promotional mode rather than practitioner depth.

The last one being Looppay, uh, that became Samsung Pay
we have investors like FedEx, Foxconn, uh, SK

Specificity & Evidence

12 / 20

The episode is above average for its format, citing patent counts, named enterprise customers, vehicle price bands, launch timelines, and Waymo's mileage figures; it falls short of a high score because there are no revenue figures, unit economics data, or customer contract specifics, and several claims are left pleasingly vague.

we have 105 patents on our smart wheel technology and additional patents on our vehicle, uh design, additional patents on our charging
We have big customers like UPS and Avis and Hertz and, and um, Amazon and, and um, um even FedEx now

Conversational Craft

5 / 20

The host cycles through a standard interview template - origin story, challenges, price point, AI, best advice, book recommendations - with no follow-up questions, no pushback on any claim, and repeated filler affirmations that signal the conversation is a promotional vehicle rather than a genuine inquiry.

Got it, got it. Thank you. And as far as um, the price point
what is the best business advice you ever gotten throughout your career?

Conversation analysis

Computed from the transcript - who did the talking, and the words that came up most.

Share of words spoken

  • Speaker C86%
  • Speaker B12%
  • Speaker A2%

Most-used words

vehicles25technology17charging17tools16vehicle15cost15transportation14chargers13invention11create10innovation10five10value10thank9ready9best9

Episode notes

How do you take an MIT invention that "reinvents the wheel" and turn it into a global transportation solution? Host Daniel Perez sits down with Will Graylin, CEO of indiGOtech, to find out.indiGOtech is building the next generation of highly efficient EVs specifically for local delivery and ride-hailing fleets. But building the vehicle is only half the battle. Will explains how Indigo is solving the massive charging bottleneck for companies like FedEx and Amazon using "Smart Power," and he reveals his personal framework (The 4 Ms) for surviving the brutal startup "Valley of Death." Plus, get a realistic timeline on the future of autonomous vehicles and a brilliant perspective on the role of AI in business. Here are some power takeaways from today's conversation:- The Critical Gap Between Invention and Innovation- The Physics and Benefits of the "Smart Wheel"- The "4 Ms" Framework for Startup Success- Solving the EV Fleet Charging Grid Bottleneck- AI as a Catalyst for Human Imagination Episode Highlights: The Smart Wheel InventionindiGOtech literally "reinvented the wheel" by integrating propulsion and active suspension directly into the wheel hub.

Full transcript

41 min

Transcribed and scored by The B2B Podcast Index.

Speaker A: Welcome to the Future of Ground Transportation podcast where we discuss the exciting innovations that lie ahead for organizational ground transportation. Each episode we cover topics tailored to those resolving transportation related challenges and provide tips, tools and trends that will inspire you to stay ahead of the curve. And now here's your host, Daniel Perez.

Speaker B: Welcome to the Future of Ground Transportation podcast. Today m we have Mr. Will Grayman with Indigotech. Will, welcome to the Future of ground Transportation.

Speaker C: Thank you for having me Daniel.

Speaker B: It's a pleasure. It's a pleasure. So will tell us a little bit about how you guys started in, in this sector and tell us a little bit about Indigo Tech. So I wait all the listeners could get a little bit of context and flavor of today's episode.

Speaker A: Uh

Speaker C: yeah I got um, I got into the whole electrification side of it uh first as a customer and that was early adopter of the Chevy Volt and earliest adopters of the Tesla Model S. And um, but as uh, as we move forward from 2010 at that time and, and on forward um, uh I ended up investing in multiple companies into electrification, into um, drones. And one of the companies was Indigo Tech. And with Indigo Tech what was most interesting was the invention out of MIT which uh, we literally reinvented the wheel where Professor Hunter had created this um, smart wheel motor with two degrees of freedom meaning it can do um propulsion in each corner independently and active suspension to go up and down to create uh, incredible stability and smoothness uh for a ride quality. But then um, beyond that um, it enables a whole new flat floor because there's nothing obstructing in between the wheels. No motors, no transmission, no CV joint drive shafts. And that frees up a lot of uh space that makes the vehicle even lighter for the same amount of space. That means more efficient uh and also a lighter weight vehicle means a smaller battery which then makes it even lighter and more efficient. So that concept was fantastic and I loved um the invention. But turning something from invention into innovation is a big big step. And uh, how do you go from these early technology through the valley of shadow of death onto the innovation and making an impact? That's the harder part. And to cross that chasm, um, I was asked uh to join um and lead uh the organization back in 2020 and um, I have had uh multiple previous startups that went from invention to innovations. And uh, since graduating from MIT with a couple of master's degrees I've been doing nothing but that journey of um, of taking inventions to, to innovation stage. And, and my previous four companies were all able to have made that journey. The last one being Looppay, uh, that became Samsung Pay. And uh, so I've had this passion for next generation commerce, next generation transport. And uh, as an investor and a board member it became natural for us to really think about how do we take this technology and transform transportation and where is the hockey puck moving towards. So where we've ended up um, is that we've decided to vertically integrate because trying to get large OEMs to change their vehicle architecture to adopt a brand new technology, um, it's going to be very, very difficult convincing you know, existing uh, players. So um, we um, we found additional investment, I personally invested into the company and we decided to focus on this greatest growth area which is next gen urban ride, hail and delivery. And how do we purpose build the kind of vehicles that I just talked about that's more efficient, that's more smooth, um, into the next generation of EVs and AVs, autonomous vehicles that uh, can service that market of ride, hail and delivery. And that's um, that's where we've been on this last uh, five years in terms of a journey, uh, with the hard um, you know, R D and development and invention, uh, from the previous number of years to get, to get to that point. And now we're getting ready to uh, launch a whole new vehicle coming out. But at the same time we recognize that the vehicle is only part of the solution. Daniel. And charging is still a barrier. Um, and how do you manage the vehicles and the drivers to fulfill uh, a mix of delivering people, products and food within a community is another major challenge. So we thought only technology, um, digitization of information and vertical integration will allow us to create the best unit economics and the best user experience. So this is how it's transformed and we've evolved as a company to go from reinventing the wheel to now reimagining transportation in a local uh, community to take advantage of the best cost and unit economics all the way down the vertical chain to solve all the problems. Because people don't really care what's underneath the hood. They just care about how do you deliver those packages and deliver themselves comfortably, safely and cost effectively. So that's our business, you know, a transport tech company now that's born out of MIT. Uh, we have investors like FedEx, Foxconn, uh, SK and uh, we're about to uh, embark upon the next part of our growth. Uh, we have multiple parts of our business from vehicles to charging to delivery services.

Speaker B: Got it, Got it. Thank you. So it seems to me uh, will that one of your main mantras is invention to innovation. So we're in the. Yeah. So when in the invention to innovation, what were the main huddles that you guys experienced at the beginning and what are the main challenges that you guys are currently experiencing as you guys continue to transition from that invention to the innovation in the current marketplace?

Speaker C: Yeah, as you know, uh, especially something that's transformative, um, uh, to make an impact. Um, as my MIT professor once said that the difference between innovations and inventions is that inventions are the ones that made it into the marketplace, made an adapt, uh, made, made mass adoption and made an impact. And uh, there are many, many inventions but very few innovations. And it's because many of them will die out in the valley of shadow of death and because that journey is very treacherous. So as uh, you just asked this question, um, everywhere along the stage from early concept to proving out the technology risk, can this technology actually work? Um, there's investment that have to be made just to make that technology work. And um, can you find the right people to uh, to help go, you know, from concept to prototype, prototype to product. Um, and that's non trivial. And depending on how big of a um solution that you're talking about, it may be capital intensive and can you raise the capital for you to get from point A to point B, but making the product work itself is not enough. Right. Um, you still have to find the customers to make sure that it meets the customer's needs. Because uh, if you're missing the mark for product market fit, you may die there on the vine also. So, but beyond uh, getting to, from 0 to 1, you also then have to figure out how you go from one to N and one to many, uh, in terms of your distribution and um, your money model. I, I tend to think of it as um, the four big M's of um, of um, success. M number one of course is the market. Are you serving the right market? Is the timing right? Uh, are there uh, already big incumbents? Um, and um, if you identify that there is a compelling enough market, then there's gotta be competition, which leads to M. M number two, which is what's your magic sauce? You better have some serious magic sauce. Whether it's a differentiated patented technology like us, we have 105 patents on our smart wheel technology and additional patents on our vehicle, uh design, additional patents on our charging, um, hardware and chargers and um, um so along the way is, is you have, do you have protectable IP that is much better than the competition. So that's magic sauce. Assuming that you have magic sauce and you have ah, the market. The third M is do you have the right money model and can you raise the right money to help you get from 0 to 1 and prove it out and then from 1 to n, uh, you know, what's your cost of acquisition of customers? What's your unit economics? Because that money model and the unit economic is critical to um, creating value. And then the last M, um, and definitely not the least, in fact it's probably the most important is what does your management team look like and uh, can you have a management team and especially leaderships at the very top that can execute the first 3ms. And pivot the first 3ms. As needed to get from here to here.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker C: Get from inventions to innovation. So um, it's definitely not an easy journey Daniel. But um, um but I've been very fortunate. My last uh, my last, my last four companies have, have all been able to make it from the invention stage to the innovation stage and got mass adoption to you know, putting it uh, our, our invention into billions of, of uh, of mobile phones and smartphones and um, um so now we're trying to take our inventions that we've got um, at Indigo Tech and um, and then making it um, into an innovation that really impacts communities around the world.

Speaker B: Got it, Got it. That is very well said and thank you for breaking it down with the uh, four big M's. So going back into you mentioned the charging and the obstacles with charging and probably maintenance and price point. Can you dig a little bit of the obstacles as you guys continue to increase your market share in the uh, in the market? Like what is the obstacles within the charging capabilities and maintenance for this?

Speaker C: Um, so vehicles, you know, obviously is there's a whole set of challenges that are there and how do you make it cost effective? How do you lower the, you know, not only the, the upfront cost but also the repair cost, um, and uh, maintenance cost. Um so I would say the vehicle side there's a whole set of challenges uh to overcome. And we've been designing the vehicles very much, you know, with the customer in mind, um, both in terms of total cost of ownership and cost per mile. Fundamentally, um, charging side as you mentioned, also lots of uh, issues over there because you know the power that's um, provided to fleets in their locations are always limited. Uh, you don't have unlimited power and setting up chargers is expensive. So um, we happen to have uh, what we call smart power. Um, this is, we've got 39 patents around this. Um, with um, with our charging solution focused on fleets, uh, we acquired Evercharge last year and we've now um, become one of the number one um players, the top tier players when it comes to helping uh, fleets electrify. That's because we have more experience than just about anybody else that's out there. We have big customers like UPS and Avis and Hertz and, and um, Amazon and, and um, um even FedEx now you know we've, we've got just all these fleets, right? PepsiCo, um, and our experience in helping them um, set up charging. With the same amount of power. We can install many more, five to six times more chargers for the same amount of power. And we have real time load balancing so that they can just plug their vehicles in and not have to have somebody waiting for that charge cycle to end. And if uh, you have 200amps for example, and if you have 40amp chargers, most people just put in five chargers. That's all you can do, right? Put five circuits. And when one vehicle is uh, getting close to the end of its charge cycle, they're not using 40amps, they're using 5amps, 3amps. So that's wasted power. Whereas we can do real time load balancing. We can help you set up 20, 25, 30 chargers so you can plug all the vehicles in and then by the time the morning comes all the vehicles would be uh, charged and ready to go. So that smart power technology saves um, the fleet's money, saves them from having to handle um, having to people to go and swap and you know, unplug and plug and um, so it's all about getting the uptime of the vehicles and saving money on a per unit basis and getting better utilization of those vehicles. And we have the best rated chargers in the world right now. We have the first 55 degrees Celsius temperature, um, rated chargers uh, because our customers demanded that kind of quality. And um, as you know heat is the enemy of chargers. And when we can improve the value of our, our um, our charging um, solutions and lower the cost, it becomes a no brainer why people choose us for our smart power, for our better uh, charging hardware for level two as well as level three. And uh, and soon we will be looking at uh, you know, even more innovative solutions that I can't announce yet. But uh, um, by act show that um, uh, coming up in a couple of months you'll see us announce some, some even more innovative solutions that's coming.

Speaker B: Got it? Got it. Thank you. And as far as um, the price point, especially with all these uh, electrical vehicles, how affordable are these vehicles and what do you foresee the price point to fluctuate in the next two to five years?

Speaker C: Yeah, so the, depending on what kind of vehicles that um, uh, the fleets and the transportation network companies are looking for, we can have anywhere from a uh, low cost, you know, 20 uh, $5,000, um, local electric vehicle, uh, that is you know, focused on campuses and um, you know, inner city travel for carrying people and packages. Um, we can have larger vehicles that are somewhere closer to 35,000 uh, dollars, uh for larger, similar size as uh, um, uh, a transit van for example, um, and then also somewhere in between what's called a mixed use vehicle that has the best in class space inside what we call the R1 and the Smart wheel vehicles that we're coming out with, um, after all the homologation that's due out in 2028 and the next year we're looking at um, you know, the transit type of vans, um, uh, that are for local electric fleets, uh, that's in 2027. That's the you know, 35 to $37,000 range. And then currently the smaller vehicle, uh, with about 90 to 100 cubic feet of space, um, that one is uh, somewhere between 25 and $27,000. So that's the vehicle side. And then on the charging side we have the best pricing on level two and level three chargers and the best quality uh, with the most advanced technology. Which is why uh, the fleets are choosing us uh, to be their um, supply chain partner and their service partner. Because we keep these uh, chargers uh, also up and going and, and our level two chargers are just, they never break, they just keep, keep on going. And we provide the service to make sure that our uh, our fleet customers are um, uh are happy and satisfied. And now keep in mind that sometimes people choose chargers, um, you know, that uh, maybe from uh, China that's manufactured or it's low cost. But you never know whether they um, will be fully compatible with the big trucks that you electrify. Um, and we've had enough experience that we work with all of the major trucks. In fact we've helped some of these trucks um, identify problems with their onboard charger so that we make sure that our solution is compatible. If uh, your truck is not compatible uh, with the charging, uh, and you can't debug it, then the fleet is having a dead piece of metal sitting there not doing any good. So our job is to make sure that there's full compatibility between vehicle and charging and we maintain the uptime. And there's one more thing that we do which uh, is one of our large fleet customers had originally started asking us, hey, can you help us identify and vary the, the charge load? Because during certain periods of time the electricity cost is much more expensive and we like to just drop down, uh, on the charging and focus on times when it's least expensive. And then we, you know, we can throttle the charging, uh, programmatically and smartly. Those are also things that we do for our customers.

Speaker B: Got it, got it. Thank you, Will. And obviously in this uh, podcast we normally like to talk about the future of transportation. So with that being said, how do you proceed between autonomous vehicles, EVTOLs? Um, yeah. What's your perspective in the next, uh, two to five years?

Speaker C: So we're still in the very, very beginning, Daniel. Um, just to put it in perspective, today, uh, worldwide they're about 4 trillion miles that are being driven by individual owners. And um, that's very expensive per mile basis. Right? Um, because you got to not only deal with the vehicle, the maintenance, the licensing, the insurance, and of course the man hours to, to drive these vehicles. And when you combine all of, not only Uber, Lyft and Didi and, and all these different companies worldwide taxis, um, that represents roughly about 1%. There's about, you know, 40 billion of these ride hail miles out of 4 trillion miles. So that's only 1%. And when you look at where Waymo is today, Waymo is still the number one leader in the US and then China, they have their own, uh, Waymo equivalents. Um, right now waymo does about 200 million miles per year and they're striving to get to about 1 billion by 2030. So you can see in their most optimistic projections, we are still just scratching the surface and still early days. If we want to replace all of these dirty gas miles that gig economy drivers are delivering, you know, our packages from Amazon Flex or, you know, giving you uber rides. So 90 plus percent of those are still gas driven, um, you know, individual owner miles. So how do we go about, um, that transformation? Well, we have to get the unit economics down and the user experience up. And those are the key things. You can't just wait for government subsidies. You have to basically do things that are more cost effective. And the way that you do that is, is you create the right kind of transportation as a service task. And that transportation as a service has to be electric. You have to move towards autonomy for sure, that lowers the labor cost, but you also have to make sure that you comply with what the local governments um, actually are um, ready and willing to accept at that time. Now we know it's inevitable, it's coming, but how is that transition going to be? Um, so it's probably not going to be as fast as most people um, want. But at the same time once um, it gets going, it's probably going to grow faster uh, than most people um, think because it's non linear. Right. This curve is going to continue to grow, but then when the inflection point hits is when all the factors are there, meaning um, the city, the town is ready for you to, to operate. The police are, are trained on how to deal with these uh, uh, these autonomous vehicles. The technology is good enough, we're getting there to be good enough. You can see places like San Francisco, Austin, but New York City is not ready to, to bring in autonomous vehicles and Waymo and Uber, right, Or Tesla. And uh, so there's still resistance until they really understand that, that this is going to uh, fully work. So there's that period of time. How long is that going to be? Could be two, three, four years, I don't know. Um, but you got to be ready for it. But in the meantime, can you create hybrid vehicles that's you know, usable on both sides and that's uh, you know, can be human driven and autonomous driven and if you can do that, your vehicle utilization would go up. And um, and I do think that it's a transition, Daniel. It's not going to be like flip the switch and it's going to be city by city, town by town. And uh, and a lot of people just don't see that, that uh, it doesn't happen automatically. And you need companies to handle not only the vehicles, the charging, uh, the delivery infrastructure, the insurance, you know, the cleaning, maintenance, repair and all of that. The dirty work that most people don't see has to be done in order for this to really become a viable solution. And I still think it's going to be hybrid. You're still going to have to deal with people driving these vehicles and operating these vehicles in combination with autonomy. Until autonomy is ready to take over more and more of it, uh, especially when it comes to uh, you know, massive package delivery. Right. Um, so uh, eventually humanoid robots will get to a point where they can, you know, take over more and more of these, um, these tasks and then deliveries, including the mechanisms to sort packages even within a truck to get to um, uh, you know, the, the bots for the last hundred feet, all of these are, are um, problems that still are yet to be solved. And uh, and while drones have its um, place and its type of packages that's um, that's suitable in its certain location where it makes unit economic sense. Um, but in many places, uh again both regulatory as well as just plain environmental physics, um, you know those are not quite ready. Uh also. And uh, and of course anytime there's a snowstorm or a rainstorm, you know you, you can uh, you can, you're going to have to pause some of those services. And by the way, I would love to see all of these mature to get to where it needs to go. Uh, I've invested in a drone company that does, that's one of the leading companies right now uh, in Europe doing uh, exactly that. But we also know that from here invention to here innovation that chasm still has to be crossed. And it's got to be crossed by really strong um, tenacious entrepreneurs that can navigate this uh, this landscape and um, but look for innovations to come. Absolutely. So five to 10 years.

Speaker B: Five to 10 years. Perfect. No that. And I appreciate the uh, context because every guest uh, has a different aspect and um, guess.

Speaker C: Let me qualify, let me qualify by saying five to 10 years to get beyond you know, the um, the, the single digit percentage to um, you know, 10, 15% I think five to 10 years. If you can get to 25 to 35% of those deliveries being done, um, using you know, autonomous capability, um, then the next piece, you know, uh, that acceleration path then will um, uh you start to get it to that, that fast piece of that acceleration path. Um, there's always going to be edge cases and they're always going to be in a need for human um, intervention in humans. But over time that would definitely be replaced by autonomy. No question about it.

Speaker B: Awesome, awesome. And uh, one question that I forgot to ask you uh Will, in regards to the new administration and EVs, is that, is that an obstacle that you foresee in the next few years?

Speaker C: No, the biggest obstacle is still the kind of obstacles that I shared with you earlier, which is all of the blocking and tackling from uh, regulatory issues to uh, edge case issues, to making sure that um, you can create a solution that has the right unit economics. Because right now as you know Waymo has spent billions and billions of dollars to uh, um, build that company. Uh, and there's still a lot of human intervention uh, behind the scenes that people don't see teleoperators, uh, uh, to address problems that are out on the road. Um, but that journey is definitely um, uh, accelerating right now. Um, so I definitely see that, um, uh, the future is bright for autonomy, um, but it's going to have to be tackled location by location and use case by use case.

Speaker B: Got it. And the new subject that everybody continues to talk about, especially in business, is AI. How do you see AI sort of accelerating either the overall process in Indigo Tech or just overall in the industry?

Speaker C: Yeah, AI is another one of those tools, um, uh, that are very powerful. And when people are given tools, um, we should learn how to use them. Just like the agricultural revolution, uh, it used to be you rely on manpower to be out there doing the work. And um, and when you can leverage some of these tools, you'll see that the yield of work goes up. And I don't think you have to be afraid of losing jobs so much as, as how do you. Those who know how to use the tools better are more productive. And when they're more productive they create more value and the economy can grow in that, uh, in that way. And right now, I mean, um, if you go roll back uh, 150 years, vast majority of jobs were farming. Right. Um, and uh, for centuries has been farming. So where did those jobs go and, and did you know anyone? There was a lot of people that freak out, you know, if there's tractors and, and then the Industrial revolution and uh, information revolution. So technology is not to be feared but to be applied. So how do we apply technology in a sane ethical way that um, um, that allows us to uh, to use these tools and think ahead rather than, uh, you know, have unintended consequences. Um, and it's not just about making money, it's about creating value. So how can you use these tools? I mean, I think these tools are fantastic and uh, it's just going to make us more productive. Uh, I'm using Cloud 4.6 right now. I also have ChatGPT on that side and I see the different models and the tools getting more and more sophisticated. And for those who are um, not ready or not willing to learn these tools, then it's almost like us digging out of a snow, digging our driveway out. You can use your hands or you can use a snowblower, um, and if you use the tools it's going to be, you know, serve you better. So I'm very optimistic about, about, um, um, uh, AI, um, But I also know that, you know, there are people that will also use that as a, um, as a, um, you know, As a fear tool, um, for them, um, for whatever agenda uh, they might have.

Speaker A: Um,

Speaker C: and I think that if you look at AI, um, the more we can share, uh, compute in a way that makes sense rather than everybody trying to uh, dominate, compute and uh, have this arms race for who's got the right model and burn a lot of capital, um, why not do it together? It's just like the Internet. Who owns the Internet? It's not like anybody, one person, one company owns the Internet. The Internet was really meant to be shared. And look at what the Internet has done for us, right? Including the PC Internet, the mobile Internet. It's created a lot of good and it's. How do we build solutions on top of AI? Leverage many of these models, create new tools to make us more efficient. And um, yes, um, I think if you have the world's um, information at your fingertip, if you have uh, the ability for agents to help you do things, then the only thing that you're really limited by is your imagination. And even education can be done in such a way that uh, you know, you sign up the next generation of children have a master tutor right in their fingertips. So can they learn faster? Uh, but it's not just about information. It doesn't make sense for you to store information in your brain anymore like the old days of, of education. Because any answer you can just pull up now. It's how do you use your creativity to create value by solving problems? How can we teach the next generation on how to use these tools, um, to be more productive, to get to know who they are as individuals and what their journey is destined to be. And how do we as human beings now live the next generation with all these tools to help us um, become a better version of ourselves, to contribute to society and, and to become happy by uh, being fulfilled, uh, by feel, doing something that is meaningful and purposeful. Because humans, we all want meaning and we all want purpose, right? And um, so if we can use AI to uh, unburden ourselves for some of the more mundane stuff, then we can ascend to that level of consciousness maybe even faster and better. So that's where I see AI is, is can uh, be used as a, uh, as a tool. And of course bad actors can use AI for malicious things, right? Uh, and we have to have the right kind of security, privacy to protect us from the bad actors that we use AI for fraud, you know, for ah, uh, malice and um, because that's always going to exist. Uh, also it's just using different uh, kind of Tools. So I don't think we should fear technology, um, but I also think that we should um, guard ourselves from um, technology being misused.

Speaker B: Perfect. Now that's very well said. I love how you put it together. That pretty much is our limitations within our imaginations which is going to be the, the new game of AI because we all have the same access to technology. But the, the creativity and the imagination behind it is really, and the execution is really was going to be a game changer the way that I see it. And um, just to conclude here Will, what, what is the best business advice you ever gotten throughout your career?

Speaker C: I think it's always about going to solve problems that haven't been solved before and go to the customers that you're trying to solve those problems with. Don't just imagine it on your own, but go talk to the customers. Uh, if you're a business, you're serving some customer and um, the more closely um, you are able to understand the customer's pain and how you can address their pain and help them with their business, then you're creating value. All of us are here to create value. Whether um, we're working within a company and we want to see how the company is out there creating value or how the company, you know, how you can serve the company and serve your team and serve your boss. Uh, or if you're an entrepreneur, you know, serve a customer that you're trying to win. Getting close to the customer is the number one advice that um, you know, be, be uh, extremely customer focused and then you know, beyond that is knowing yourself and then knowing your competition. If you can know yourself well and continuing to improve yourself and you know your, your competitions and you figure out how you navigate to um, to better create value. Um, so those are, those are some advice that um, I've been able to derive from, from um, really good people that have you know, passed passed those things on on to me.

Speaker B: Awesome. Awesome. Thank you Will. And what is the um, top one or two books that you recommend the most that has the biggest impact on your professional career?

Speaker C: First of all, I'm a non stop reader and non stop, um, learner and I, I think I've got hundreds of titles on my, my audiobook list. Uh, the most recent book that I'm currently um, just finished and uh, and I've shared this with my, my team as well. This, this book called 15 Commitments to Conscious Leadership. This was recommended to me by a, by a friend. And um, this is also a great guide for teams and individuals that want uh, to take it to the next level of being conscious leader. A um, lot of that is about getting to know yourself, getting to know your teammates and getting to know how your team works and how to live up to these commitments. Above the line. In other words, being conscious as opposed to below the line and letting um, you know, our subconscious, our conditioning to very easily get rattled or get offended, um, or uh, pray to uh, our own ego, uh, and do things not out of love and creation. Um, so if we, we want to be conscious, then we stay above the line and oftentimes we're going to wander and can we spot ourselves when we wander below the line and get ourselves back above. So this is also a great book that I would um, I uh, would recommend.

Speaker B: Awesome. Awesome. Well, well thank you so much for all the listeners. For the large fleets that might be considering, uh, new vehicles, how they can get in touch of your organization. I know we're going to put the uh, your information on the episode notes, but what would be the best way to uh, contact you or your organization?

Speaker C: Yeah, they can uh, they can reach out to us on our website, uh, Indigotech.com www uh I n-I g o t E C H And uh, you can also find me on LinkedIn. Uh, Will Grayland. Um, I'm also uh, easily uh, found there.

Speaker B: Perfect. Well, thank you so much for being generous with your time and for sharing so much wisdom. Appreciate your time. Thank you.

Speaker C: My pleasure, Daniel.

Speaker B: Hey everyone. Thanks so much for tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed the episode and got some valuable insights. If you're curious to learn more, head over to the resource where website@dpvtransportation.com where we got a ton of useful resources and tools for you to stay ahead of the game. And before we wrap it up, I want to invite you to book a free guest admission consultation or a consultation about your ground transportation program with us. Just register on our website is a fantastic way to see how your fleet is doing or how your overall program could be improve. Thanks again for joining us and we will catch you next time on the future of ground transportation. Have a great day.

Speaker A: Thanks for tuning in to the future of ground transportation. We appreciate you coming along for the ride. If you found value in this episode and want to hear more, please make sure to subscribe to the show.

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