Travis Kalanick tells new grads to skip the app store and automate 2-million-pound machines
cen6wkf · reddit · 2026-07-24
Travis Kalanick, now running the industrial-AI company Atoms, tells a Stanford CS graduate that the answer is not to “learn more AI tools” but to skip the app store and automate heavy industrial machines instead.
The pitch, as relayed in the post, is to build on existing mining equipment rather than replace it: autonomous haulage, remote-to-autonomous control, and eventually a “no-entry mine” where no humans are in the pit.
The framing is that the scarcity for new grads has moved away from traditional software and toward physical infrastructure. The post also includes a meme-style image quoting Kalanick's line about automating a 2-million-pound machine that moves 35 mph and carries gold.
Related event: Uber Founder Urges Grads to Automate Heavy Machinery(3 posts)→
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