The gang is back with another discussion episode covering a diverse range of topics, from the new Mercedes S Class and Polestar 2 and the struggle to create good modern user interfaces, to the GM-Honda Alliance and another look at the SPACmania that is inflating EV startup valuations while looking past AVs almost entirely.

Mapping continues to be one of the more misunderstood aspects of AV development, so to help clear up the confusion we spoke with one of the godfathers of modern mapping tech. Mark Wheeler is the co-founder and CTO of DeepMap, a company that's been working on onboard HD mapping for AVs since 2016. He explains why mapping matters, how DeepMap builds its HD maps, and how he ended up working in this fascinating space.

Lyft is one of the few mobility platforms where you can hail a ride in an autonomous vehicle, at least in Las Vegas and Chandler, Arizona where it partners with Aptiv and Waymo respectively. But Lyft is also developing its own autonomous driving technology, at its Level 5 organization in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lyft's Jody Kelman joins the show to explain this dual-track approach, lay out her vision for autonomous ride hailing and explain where the "Level 5" name came from.

Every once in a while, someone coins a word that takes a huge and complex concept and makes it comprehensible to the general public. That's exactly what Liza Dixon did one day, when she responded to one of Alex Roy's tweets with a brand-new neologism: Autonowashing. We caught up with the doctoral candidate, human-automation interaction expert and all-around badass to discuss Autonowashing, her research, human factors and much more.

Two major developments in the autonomous vehicle world captured our attention in this week's discussion episode: Waymo's deal with Volvo, and Amazon's purchase of Zoox. We discuss the deals, what they might mean, and how they affect the rest of the alliances... but more importantly, how we should mash up the names into catchy portemanteau.

The gang has a lot of news to discuss this week, with an NVIDIA-Mercedes partnership, BMW and Daimler's "conscious uncoupling," Apple Maps' mobility features, and Lyft's recent moves in mapping and electrification. Still, in spite of all this meaty news, Alex only wants to discuss one thing: blenders. Welcome, friends, to the Blendercast.

The gang spends this week's discussion talking about fiction, specifically the new Amazon Prime show "Upload." This is a bit of a change of pace, as The Autonocast has always tried to keep its discussions firmly rooted in the real-world, but there's a good reason for this switch-up. For one thing, it's just plain fun at a time when we could all use a little escapism, but according to Ed it's actually educational too... or is he just kidding himself?

With everything going on right now, mobility can seem like a frivolous thing to be focused on but as the gang discusses in today's episode it's actually more important than ever. New technology allows us to build new ways of getting around, and to ensure that these new systems serve everyone it's critical that we understand how our past systems failed to do so. Plus, what's the deal with that study saying AVs will only solve 34% of road crashes?