Episode 0037:Paul Avery
Paul Avery on Autonomous Vehicles, AI, and the Rise of Cooperative Autonomy
What if autonomous vehicles weren’t just smart individually but collectively?
What if cars, roads, traffic lights, and entire cities coordinated in real time like a living, intelligent organism?
In this episode of DRIVEN, Paul Perrone sits down with Paul Avery, Associate Vice President of Automation & Data Systems at AECOM, and one of the foremost experts in connected and automated vehicle systems, cooperative robotics, and transportation AI. Paul Avery unpacks two decades of hands-on work. From early DSRC connected-vehicle experiments at Southwest Research Institute, to leading AI/ML architectures at General Motors, to shaping national infrastructure strategy at AECOM.
This conversation dives deep.
🚗 Inside the Evolution of Autonomy How autonomy really started in work zones, DSRC trials, and cooperative systems Why “Level 5” is the wrong mental model What the public gets wrong about AV timelines
🧠 AI & Multi-Agent Robotics Fusion of perception, friction estimation, and machine learning at GM How vehicles can “feel” road conditions using AI Why autonomy must be a system-level, not vehicle-level, problem
🌐 Connected Vehicles (V2V, V2I, V2X) Why connected systems stalled in the U.S. CV vs AV: the real power is when they converge Practical deployments states and cities can do today
🛣️ Infrastructure as an Intelligent Nervous System AECOM’s work helping agencies prepare for automation Digital twins and real-time simulation for transportation networks How cities will change when infrastructure becomes “smart”
🔧 Real-World Deployment Insights Funding, policy, and operational challenges Safety, standardization, and the cost of doing autonomy wrong Why the hardest problems aren’t technical, they’re organizational
🎙️ Closing Reflections What motivates long-term researchers to stay in this field The responsibility engineers have when building systems that affect millions Why cooperative autonomy is the key to unlocking the next era of mobility If you care about the future of transportation, robotics, AI, and the systems that keep our society moving, then this episode is packed with insight you won’t find anywhere else.
Don’t forget to like and subscribe for more conversations on the future of robotics, AI, and beyond!
From: Paul Perrone - DRIVEN Host (https://www.driven.show) & Perrone Robotics CEO/Founder (https://www.perronerobotics.com)
