Charging Stack Podcast: How BrightDrive Builds Real Level 4 Autonomous Fleets

In this Charging Stack podcast episode, we talk with Mahmoud Serour, CTO of BrightDrive, about what it really takes to bring Level 4 autonomy to buses and trucks – starting in the Middle East and North Africa and scaling out from there.

BrightDrive sits inside Brightskies and focuses on turning commercial vehicles into autonomous fleet tools: city buses, port and airport trucks, and other heavy-duty platforms that run fixed or semi-fixed routes. Instead of chasing robo-taxis, they build an autonomy “brain” that can be retrofitted onto existing vehicles, deliver predictable uptime, and solve real operator problems like driver shortages and low asset utilization.

Mahmoud shares how he went from co-founding a university robotics team in Alexandria to leading a Level 4 autonomy program that won the Dubai World Challenge for Self-Driving Transport and landed him on Business Insider’s “35 Under 35 Rising Stars” in self-driving tech. We talk about why true Level 4 requires redundancy in the vehicle itself, how BrightDrive thinks about safety and uptime, and what it means to build deep tech from the MENA region instead of Silicon Valley.

This episode is for you if:

• You operate bus or truck fleets and want to understand where autonomy actually pays off
• You work in ports, logistics, airports, or industrial sites and are exploring automated operations
• You are evaluating retrofit autonomy rather than waiting for new factory-built AV platforms
• You care about functional safety, Level 4 definitions, and redundancy beyond the buzzwords
• You are building or investing in deep tech in the Middle East, North Africa, or emerging markets

In this episode, you’ll learn:

⚡️ Why BrightDrive focuses on fleets in controlled or semi-controlled domains instead of robo-taxis
⚡️ How they define real Level 4 autonomy, including redundant braking, steering, and powertrain
⚡️ Where autonomy delivers the clearest ROI today: predictable uptime and higher fleet utilization
⚡️ How BrightDrive retrofits existing buses and trucks rather than forcing operators to buy new vehicles
⚡️ What it means to build a self-driving company from Dubai and Egypt, and how that differs from Europe or Silicon Valley
⚡️ Why autonomy will change driver roles instead of simply replacing drivers overnight

Topics covered include

• How Mahmoud went from a university robotics team in Alexandria to leading BrightDrive’s Level 4 autonomy program
• Why BrightDrive focuses on buses, trucks, ports, and industrial fleets instead of chasing robo-taxis
• What “real” Level 4 means in practice, including redundancy in braking, steering, and vehicle architecture
• Where autonomy delivers ROI today: predictable uptime, higher utilization, and fewer incidents in demanding operations
• How BrightDrive retrofits existing vehicles from different OEMs and rolls out projects from pilot to full deployment
• What changes for operators and drivers when autonomy enters the fleet, from new roles to new workflows
• The pros and cons of building an autonomy company from Dubai, Europe, and the wider MENA region
• Other AV players Mahmoud respects and how BrightDrive positions itself in the global ecosystem
• A high-level look at the BrightDrive stack, from sensing and perception to path planning and motion control
• What’s next: scaling deployments and turning autonomy into a repeatable product, not a one-off project

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