Verne Robotics bets on on-device inference: robots can't rely on WiFi to run policies

danfei_xu · x · 2026-09-15

Responding to SemiAnalysis' deep dive on robot compute featuring Verne Robotics, founder Danfei Xu explains why the company invested heavily in on-device inference: in warehouses and factories WiFi is unreliable, and a network hiccup breaks high-frequency policy execution. That requires vertical integration from models to inference to controllers. She frames robot learning infra as a science in its own right, and argues scaling models is necessary for robot intelligence. Notably truncated in the quote, but the two directions she's most excited about start with connecting System 1-style fast reactions to deeper reasoning.

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