Autonomy is no longer a moonshot—it’s a market

# Autonomy is No Longer a Moonshot—It’s a Market: Key Insights

In this insightful discussion featuring Casser Unus (Co-founder and CEO of Applied Intuition) and Jason Brown (who leads the company’s government business), we gain valuable perspective on how vehicle autonomy has evolved from a speculative technology into a real-world market. Here are the key takeaways from their conversation.

## The Current State of Autonomy

Applied Intuition is a vehicle intelligence company that builds software and AI for vehicles, including tools, operating systems, and autonomous capabilities. With approximately 1,000 employees (primarily engineers), they serve both commercial markets and government clients.

According to Unus, autonomy has reached an inflection point:

> “The past 10 years, autonomy was like this almost sci-fi ‘will it, won’t it’ speculative technology… I think we’re at that threshold where the next decade is very much the productionization, proliferation, and monetization of autonomy.”

## Two Main Approaches to Autonomy

The industry has developed two primary approaches to autonomous vehicles:

1. **The Waymo Approach**: No driver in the seat, fully autonomous operation, sensor-heavy systems with expensive computing requirements. The business model is still evolving, but the technology works reliably with tens of thousands of miles between disengagements.

2. **The Tesla Approach**: Driver remains in the seat, less expensive sensor suite (primarily camera-based), with a proven business model where consumers already pay for the technology. It cannot yet operate everywhere and requires driver supervision.

Unus predicts these approaches will converge over time as Waymo technology becomes less expensive and Tesla’s becomes more reliable.

## The Dual-Use Nature of Autonomy

Applied Intuition operates as a “dual-use” company, serving both commercial clients and defense/government customers. This approach offers unique advantages:

> “A dual-use company like us can be very valuable because we are benchmarking on the commercial side. If you’re only serving the DoD, you sometimes don’t get that commercial benchmark. If our products are not good, we’re not going to survive as a company. Full stop.”

The company’s government work began in 2019