Walden Robotics: A Robot That Works 90% of the Time Is Useless in a Factory
adnothing · x · 2026-10-02
At CoreWeave's Fully Connected event, Walden Robotics' founder shared what happens when you stop optimizing robots for demos and start optimizing for deployment, in a session recommended by robotics veteran Ilir Aliu.
- Core message: a robot that works 90% of the time is completely useless in a factory. Customers have working processes, quality targets, cycle times, and spreadsheets with numbers like 99.5%—the robot has to work on their terms. "You have to earn the right to be on the factory floor."
- Walden doesn't assume the AI is good enough; it continuously validates and improves in production, scaling faster than initially expected.
- The author acknowledges physical AI is insanely hard but says the "Walden Way" is proving out and it's time to accelerate.
More from Companies & People
- Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky on his AI-era playbook: generating tens of thousands of ideas — dunkhippo33 · 2026-10-02
- Claive CEO Claire Vo's True Confession: 'I Am Out of Good Ideas' — lennysan · 2026-10-02
- Why Anthropic skips consumer life agents while OpenAI, Meta and xAI race in — sujingshen · 2026-10-02
- AAIF London to host agentic AI meetup on agents in finance at Gradient Labs on Oct 15 — neal_lathia · 2026-10-02
- Epic Deployed Claude to Stress-Test 325M Patient Records, Found Critical Flaws — EricTopol · 2026-10-02
- Great Chat Podcast: why tech hasn't left a physical imprint on San Francisco — ashleymayer · 2026-10-02