Autonomy is no longer a moonshot—it’s a market. And increasingly, it’s a battlefield. Recorded live at the 2025 American Dynamism Summit, this discussion features a16z General Partner Erin Price-Wright sitting down with Qasar Younis (cofounder & CEO, Applied Intuition) and Jason Brown (Head of Government Business, Applied Intuition) to explore how vehicle intelligence and autonomy are reshaping defense, industry, and the future of transportation. They cover: - Why the next decade is about deploying autonomy, not debating it - The convergence of commercial and military autonomy stacks - How to retrofit 100-year-old defense platforms with cutting-edge AI - Why dual-use companies can—and must—set the benchmark - What it takes to win the software-defined arms race From self-driving ride-hail in San Francisco to autonomous naval vessels, the future isn’t just autonomous—it’s already in production. Follow everyone: - Erin Price-Wright - https://x.com/espricewright - Qasar Younis - https://x.com/qasar - Jason Brown - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonmbro/ Timestamps: 00:00: Introduction 00:40: Founder Intros 01:18: The History of Applied Intuition 03:30: Productionization and Proliferation of Autonomy 07:55: Will The Future of Autonomous Vehicles Look Like Waymo or Tesla? 10:58: Autonomy In Defense 12:30: Supporting Retrofits and Legacy Systems 13:26: Driving Force Behind Applied Intuition 15:39: Beginnings of DOD Engagement and Commercial Benchmarks 20:49: Features That Benefit Commercial and Defense Customers 21:45: Navigating Technical and Product Requirements 24:08: Hiring Practices (Commercial vs Government.) 26:10: Improvements In How The DOD Procures Technology 30:34: Partnerships vs Direct Relationships 33:18: The ChatGPT Moment For Autonomy 36:06: How Close Are We To Autonomy Being Ubiquitous? 38:49: The Future of Autonomy, Mission-Driven Engineers