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Company Insights


6 lessons I learned watching a robotics startup die from the inside
1. Large Model Chauvinism Will Get Someone Hurt There’s this belief going around that AI models are getting so good that hardware can afford to be dumb. Sensors? The model will figure it out from vision. Safety limits? The policy will learn to avoid them. I call this Large Model Chauvinism. At our startup, it shaped decisions constantly. And to be fair, it wasn’t one person’s blind spot — most of us bought into it to some degree. The AI was genuinely impressive, and it was ea
2 days ago5 min read


Navi Emerges from Stealth to Train Pilots Better
With all eyes on an autonomous future of flight, it’s easy to forget the human pilots who will remain firmly in the cockpit for the foreseeable future. Luckily, one San Francisco-based company is remaining focused on people, even as we await the rise of the robots. Yesterday, Navi AI—a startup using AI to improve pilot training and performance—emerged from stealth with $6.7M in funding from United Airlines Ventures, BVVC, New Vista Capital, Raptor Group, I2BF, and the Pentag
2 days ago4 min read


Epirus, Kodiak, and GD Team Up on Mobile Drone-Zapper
Looks like Epirus is making its relationship with GD Land Systems into a throuple. This morning, directed energy counter-UAS startup Epirus announced that it’s teaming up with General Dynamics Land Systems and ground autonomy hotshot Kodiak to build a mobile, autonomous drone-zapper called the Leonidas Autonomous Ground Vehicle (AGV). The AGV will be equipped with Epirus’ signature Leonidas high-power microwave (HPM) system. For the uninitiated: instead of jamming, shooting,
2 days ago2 min read
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