Guest: Ryan Smith (LinkedIn)
Company: Oxa (Twitter)
Show: Let’s Talk about AI

When many of us think of autonomous vehicles, we tend to think of small-scale deployments of self-driving cars but the mining industry has been leveraging autonomous vehicles for 20 years. Yet in times when congestion in urban areas is causing significant problems, is it time to rethink how we travel? One such company that is focused on solving these problems is Oxa.

In this episode of TFiR: Let’s Talk About AI, Ryan Smith, SVP Solutions at Oxa, talks about the company and its key focuses on self-driving software and services. He goes on to discuss some of the industries leveraging autonomous vehicles, and what he sees in the future of self-driving vehicles for consumers.

Key highlights from this video interview:

• Smith gives us an introduction to Oxa, the software development company that focuses on self-driving software and services that unlock the power of autonomy for vehicles in any environment whether that is for shuttles, logistics handling, or monitoring in solar farms.
• Smith explains that they have moved away from their focus of robo-taxis to focusing on their primary product, universal autonomy. He talks about their flexible architecture, COMPOSE Architecture which can be put on any kind of vehicle and customized to suit specific needs.
• Whereas Tesla builds their own software and hardware stack, Oxa is a B2B company and not a complete vertical. Smith explains how Oxa is different since it is spread across multiple verticals and is hardware agnostic and the customer can use the software regardless of the type of vehicle.
• Smith takes us through the software stack for autonomous vehicles saying that Oxa is like the OS layer for an Android since you can build different applications that are customized on top of it. He explains that Oxa also provides open APIs that can be easily integrated.
• Smith discusses the scope of Oxa’s technologies explaining that their fundamental platform that goes on the vehicle, Oxa Driver, is built on a multi-sensory modality type of platform. He discusses how the technology works without relying on external infrastructure and the different modes of sensing technology.
• One of the industries where autonomous vehicles are heavily relied on for operations is mining, which has had applications in production for the past 20 years. Smith explains why autonomous vehicles are used in mining, for instance, the location is very remote and the environment dangerous or dusty.
• Smith believes that multiperson transport on road through shuttling will be the next mass adoption of autonomous vehicles in order to reduce congestion within cities and urban areas.
• Smith talks about how machine learning is being used to help them make complex decisions and semantic reasoning while operating on the road in complex environments. He talks about how they are using generative AI in the development of one of their products, Meta Driver.
• Smith talks about their imminent launch of autonomous multi-passenger Beep shuttles driven by Oxa’s software in Florida, U.S.
• Smith discusses what he predicts the future of self-driving for consumers may look like, saying in efforts to reduce congestion he believes single drivers will be eliminated and replaced by multi-passenger mobility such as robo-taxis. He explains how Oxa is working to empower mobility and to change how the world moves.
• Smith discusses the value autonomous vehicles can bring to our lives, particularly with regard to safety, and how having safe technology to provide mobility is key to moving forward.

This summary was written by Emily Nicholls.