Harry interviews Alex Nesic of Bingo Tech about the company's pivot from battery swapping for two- and three-wheelers to a purpose-built electric ride-hail vehicle, the Bingo E2, driven by fleet demand in markets like South Africa and Kenya. Bingo's roots include a large-scale battery-swapping platform in China and a white-label swapping and fleet software platform deployed internationally. The E2 is an L7e-class vehicle with a 31 kWh main battery (~350 km range), optional four handheld swappable batteries (+150 km), and DC fast charging (20–80% in ~40 minutes), designed for rugged, connected fleet use and grid instability. They discuss driver economics, lower total cost of ownership via cheaper electricity, upcoming Nairobi pilots and Q3 shipments, and a "Cloud Fleet" program letting buyers reserve and purchase E2s ($12,000) to generate revenue through managed deployments, plus an AI call-in assistant, Maya.

• 0:00 Intro to RSG269 with Alex Nesic of Bingo Tech
• 00:32 Who Is Alex Nesic?
• 01:41 How Did Bingo Start?
• 05:32 Why Did Bingo Build The E2?
• 09:01 How Do The Driver Economics Work?
• 11:46 Why Is Africa Such A Big Market?
• 14:13 What Grid Challenges Exist?
• 15:59 How Does The Dual Battery System Work?
• 18:09 How Do Charging And Battery Swaps Work?
• 22:14 How Did Bingo Go From Prototype To Production?
• 23:49 What Is The Cloud Fleet Program?
• 29:08 How Are Insurance And Risk Handled?
• 30:43 What Is Maya AI Hotline?
• 32:03 How Will AVs Work In Emerging Markets?
• 33:57 Who Are The Competitors And Could It Work In The US?
• 37:01 Final Thoughts And Wrap Up

• Bingo Tech: https://www.bingotech.io/
• Alex's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-nesic

In today's episode, I'm speaking with Omar Zoubi, VP of Autonomous Mobility & Rideshare Network Strategy at TaskUs. Omar breaks down how TaskUs supports autonomous vehicle operators behind the scenes, from remote assistance to handling edge cases that today's AI systems still struggle to navigate.

We get into TaskUs' role across the AV ecosystem, including who they partner with and how their human-in-the-loop model helps fleets operate safely and scale more efficiently. Omar explains the types of real-world scenarios where AVs need intervention, how those interventions feed back into improving AI systems, and what it takes to support different types of fleets with varying operational needs.

The conversation also covers the current stage of the AV industry, including how companies like Waymo are approaching remote assistance and safety, and what challenges emerge as fleets grow. We discuss operational complexity, cost structures, and how companies think about cost per mile as they move toward commercialization.

Finally, Omar shares his perspective on where TaskUs adds the most value today, how the human-in-the-loop model will evolve over time, and what the future of the AV industry looks like as autonomy matures.

Chapters

• (00:00) Introduction to Omar Zoubi and TaskUs

• (03:19) TaskUs' domain of operation

• (03:30) TaskUs' AV business model, and their partners

• (04:43) What services does TaskUs provide to its AV clients?

• (06:10) How does TaskUs' assistance in edge cases help AV clients improve their AI?

• (07:53) Common scenarios where AV companies might need remote assistance, and how TaskUs helps.

• (09:30) Differences between supporting different AV fleets

• (10:41) How Omar thinks about Waymo's remote assistance and safety

• (12:40) What stage of the AV industry are we in?

• (14:19) Biggest operational challenges as AV fleets start to scale

• (15:46) Common traits across operators and companies in the AV industry

• (17:00) How the human-in-the-loop model will evolve as AVs mature

• (19:05) How do you plan for unpredictable scenarios, like the recent SF blackout?

• (21:38) How AV operational costs are distributed and cost per mile

• (23:10) Where does TaskUs offer the biggest value or opportunity for AV companies?

• (24:00) What does the future of the AV industry look like?

• (25:43) Conclusions and final thoughts

• You can find Omar Zoubi on Linkedin.

• TaskUs website (link).

• Learn how TaskUs supports AV operations in their case study (link).

In today's episode, I'm speaking with Ashu Rege, Vice President of DoorDash Labs at DoorDash. Ashu shares his journey through the autonomous vehicle industry, including roles at NVIDIA and Zoox, before leading autonomy efforts within one of the largest delivery platforms in the world.

We dive into what drew him to DoorDash Labs and how the team is thinking about autonomy differently from robotaxi companies. Ashu explains the origins of DoorDash's delivery robot DOT, the goals of the DoorDash Labs, and how their Autonomous Delivery Platform (ADP) is designed to support a wide range of delivery modalities. The conversation explores what makes autonomous delivery fundamentally different from human delivery, how mature DoorDash's delivery solutions are today, and the different categories of autonomy DoorDash is pursuing.

We also get into the economics of autonomous delivery and the unique problems autonomy is best suited to solve in delivery. Ashu breaks down how DOT operates in the real world, including its limitations and where it stands out the most. Finally, we look ahead to what's next for DoorDash and DoorDash Labs' autonomy efforts over the coming year, including how the company is balancing partnerships with in‑house development.

Chapters

• (00:00) Introduction to Ashu Rege

• (02:47) Ashu's background in the AV industry (Nvidia, Zoox, and DoorDash).

• (04:30) What excited Ashu about joining DoorDash Labs, and its autonomy goals.

• (05:43) The story behind the creation of DOT and its perks

• (08:23) The goal of DoorDash Labs and what they do

• (09:18) DoorDash Labs' Autonomous Delivery Platform (ADP) explained.

• (10:34) One key difference between an autonomous delivery solution and a human.

• (11:52) How commercially mature are DoorDash's autonomous delivery solutions?

• (12:54) DoorDash's autonomous delivery categories, and how they compare to each other.

• (14:29) Why is now the right time to scale autonomy in delivery, and how autonomous delivery differs from robotaxis.

• (18:30) How DoorDash approaches the balance between partnering and building autonomous delivery solutions in-house.

• (23:31) How autonomous deliveries compare to human deliveries in cost, and the unique problem autonomous deliveries solve.

• (25:20) How autonomous deliveries work using DOT, its limitations, and where it stands out.

• (35:11) What to expect from DoorDash and DoorDash Labs over the next year in autonomy.

• (36:52) Conclusions and final thoughts

• You can find Ashu on LinkedIn.

• DOT is DoorDash's first in-house autonomous delivery robot. You can find more info about it here (link).

• DoorDash Labs is DoorDash's robotics and automation arm. You can find more info about them on their website (link).

  • Open roles at DoorDash Labs (link).

-Harry