ROAD WARRIORS

APPLIED INTUITION WANTS TO BRING ITS SELF-DRIVING TECH TO EVERYTHING THAT MOVES, FROM BIG RIGS TO ARMY TANKS. BUT TO EXPAND BEYOND ITS $800 MILLION BUSINESS SELLING SOFTWARE FOR AUTOS, IT WILL HAVE TO TAKE ON TESLA, GOOGLE, NVIDIA AND A HOST OF OTHER STARTUPS JOSTLING FOR POLE POSITION IN THE AUTONOMY RACE.

- Iain Martin and Alan Ohnsman

Rear View Applied Intuition CEO Qasar Younis (left) and CTO Peter Ludwig believe human-driven cars will soon seem dated. "They'll look antiquated and retro," Younis says.

On a sunny winter day in Silicon Valley, Qasar Younis slips on his shoes in the entryway to Applied Intuition’s headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. The CEO’s strict ban on outside footwear in the building means employees and guests must wear slippers, a habit Younis picked up from a short stint at auto parts maker Bosch in Japan.

Feet now clad in black boots, he heads past a 150-foot water tower topped with what looks like a giant can of fruit cocktail—the last visible sign of the site’s roots as a Libby’s fruit cannery. His destination: the company’s garage, a tech warehouse in which you’ll find many of Applied’s latest experiments in car software.

Inside, a dozen or so young engineers who joined from companies like Honda, General Motors and Daimler line up next to various vehicles. Younis points to Jeep’s 2021 Grand Wagoneer, which is kitted out with its infotainment system, seating controls and vehicle diagnostics. Further down, there’s a robotic Isuzu box truck, currently being tested on Japanese highways. Nearby sits a small JCB Teleskid loader that can navigate construction sites on its own, and an autonomous Ford Raptor pickup, put together for the U.S. Army to haul gear without a soldier at the wheel.