Automated with Brian Heater

The current interest in robotics follows a pattern we’ve seen before. Eric Danziger has spent years working through those cycles and offers perspective on how things are actually playing out.Invisible AI CEO Eric Danziger joins Automated to cut through the hype around humanoids, self-driving cars, and AI demos. Drawing from his time in the U.S. Army, Carnegie Mellon’s robotics program, and Silicon Valley startups, Danziger explains why physical AI moves more slowly than software, and why vision, infrastructure, and manufacturing realities matter more than flashy demos. A grounded conversation about what’s possible now, what isn’t, and what it will really take to automate the physical world.We’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts or guest suggestions? Reach us at podcast@automate.org.You can find the transcript and more episodes of Automated at automated.fm. Unlock full access to Automated and explore everything automation. Subscribe today and leave a review on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.Subscribe to the Automated Newsletter: https://www.automate.org/automation/newsletter-automation-roundupYou can also find us on:LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/automated-podcast-by-a3/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/automatedpod/  

Robotics has a habit of compressing timelines in theory and stretching them out in practice. Few people are better positioned to talk about that gap than Vincent Vanhoucke, whose work spans the early days of deep learning at Google and the ongoing challenge of scaling autonomous systems at Waymo.Vincent Vanhoucke, distinguished engineer at Waymo and former leader at Google Robotics and Google Brain, joins Automated for a wide-ranging conversation on embodied AI, robotics, and autonomous driving.From the early days of deep learning to today’s foundation models, Vincent breaks down why scaling is harder than innovation, how robotics and AI finally converged, and what humanoids can learn from the long road to self-driving cars.Listen to Vincent’s podcast: AI in Motion https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCkt0hth826G9AtnOrQsPbKKD5JmdaMXb&si=Nes4oraGJT4d4biaWe’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts or guest suggestions? Reach us at podcast@automate.org.You can find the transcript and more episodes of Automated at automated.fm. Unlock full access to Automated and explore everything automation. Subscribe today and leave a review on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.Subscribe to the Automated Newsletter: https://www.automate.org/automation/newsletter-automation-roundupYou can also find us on:LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/automated-podcast-by-a3/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/automatedpod/  

True Ventures was an early investor in key robotics startups like Diligent and Bear Flag, thanks, in part, to Rohit Sharma’s thoughtful eye. The venture partner discusses how the firm determines early stage successes and charts his family’s journey from India farm to Palo Alto boardroom. From ag robotics and humanoids to long investment timelines, founder empathy, and why optimism matters in venture, this conversation goes deep on how transformative technologies actually make it into the world. We’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts or guest suggestions? Reach us at podcast@automate.org.You can find the transcript and more episodes of Automated at automated.fm. Unlock full access to Automated and explore everything automation. Subscribe today and leave a review on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.Subscribe to the Automated Newsletter: https://www.automate.org/automation/newsletter-automation-roundupYou can also find us on:LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/automated-podcast-by-a3/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/automatedpod/  

‘‘Twas the night before Automated and all through TRI, not a robot was stirring, just Erin McColl and I. We watched several YouTube videos with great glee, for the latest in AI and autonomy.” Welcome to this end-of-year special where host Brian Heater and Toyota Research Institute’s Erin McColl break down the most compelling robot videos of 2025. What’s real, what’s hype, and what actually moved automation technologies forward. From diffusion policies and dexterity challenges to home robots, humanoids, and honest failure cases, this episode explores the trends shaping robotics heading into 2026, plus the reveal of the 2025 Readers’ Poll winner.See the full list of 10 videos under consideration on YouTube. We’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts or guest suggestions? Reach us at podcast@automate.org.You can find the transcript and more episodes of Automated at automated.fm. Unlock full access to Automated and explore everything automation. Subscribe today and leave a review on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.Subscribe to the Automated Newsletter: https://www.automate.org/automation/newsletter-automation-roundupYou can also find us on:LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/automated-podcast-by-a3/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/automatedpod/  

For more than 30 years, University of Massachusetts Lowell professor Holly Yanco has been a leading mind in human-robot interaction. It seems the rest of the automation industry may finally be catching up with her decades of research.Professor Yanco delves into the complexities of human–robot interaction, from telepresence robots and robot trust to assistive tech, exoskeleton advances, and the challenges of real-world deployment. She shares lessons from decades of testing, breaking, and improving robots, why telepresence robots never had their predicted breakout moment, and what it takes to build capability-driven systems people can actually trust. This episode covers: agricultural robotics, underwater testing, community-college talent pipelines, and what it really takes to grow the next generation of roboticists.We’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts or guest suggestions? Reach us at podcast@automate.org.You can find the transcript and more episodes of Automated at automated.fm. Unlock full access to Automated and explore everything automation. Subscribe today and leave a review on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.Subscribe to the Automated Newsletter: https://www.automate.org/automation/newsletter-automation-roundupYou can also find us on:LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/automated-podcast-by-a3/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/automatedpod/  

For Grace Brown, a humanoid robot future is a hopeful future. Andromeda’s Abi is designed to build connections in an increasingly isolated world, focused on older adults in care facilities. It’s a group that is a prime target for transformative technologies, but is too often overlooked.In this episode, she talks about designing Abi, the robot bringing real connection back into aged care, the jaw-dropping moments that proved it was working, and the obsession, grit, and magic behind building a billion-dollar startup from nothing.We’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts or guest suggestions? Reach us at podcast@automate.org.You can find the transcript and more episodes of Automated at automated.fm. Unlock full access to Automated and explore everything automation. Subscribe today and leave a review on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.Subscribe to the Automated Newsletter: https://www.automate.org/automation/newsletter-automation-roundupYou can also find us on:LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/automated-podcast-by-a3/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/automatedpod/  

In 2018, Dusty Robotics quite literally got in on the ground floor of automating the $2 trillion U.S. construction industry. Founder and CEO Tessa Lau discusses the ups and downs of those early days, and what it means to go from engineer to executive.We’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts or guest suggestions? Reach us at podcast@automate.org.You can find the transcript and more episodes of Automated at automated.fm. Unlock full access to Automated and explore everything automation. Subscribe today and leave a review on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.Subscribe to the Automated Newsletter: https://www.automate.org/automation/newsletter-automation-roundupYou can also find us on:LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/automated-podcast-by-a3/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/automatedpod/  

AI Go-to-Market Lead for Energy & Utilities at Google AI, Dianne Eldridge, knows how to communicate with executives. The automation vet is also an expert at cutting to the heart of the matter in conversations about industry, society, and her own personal journey. In this episode, Dianne shares her remarkable journey, from surviving a three-family apartment in Beijing to becoming an executive shaping global AI strategy.She and Brian Heater explore AI’s impact on jobs, immigrant grit, ethical guardrails, leadership mistakes, and what it really takes to grow careers in the age of automation.We’d love to hear from you! Have thoughts or guest suggestions? Reach us at podcast@automate.org.You can find the transcript and more episodes of Automated at automated.fm. Unlock full access to Automated and explore everything automation. Subscribe today and leave a review on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.Subscribe to the Automated Newsletter: https://www.automate.org/automation/newsletter-automation-roundupYou can also find us on:LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/automated-podcast-by-a3/Instagram https://www.instagram.com/automatedpod/