What iPhone Packaging Reveals About the Robotics Opportunity
Tutor Intelligence CEO Josh Gruenstein talks with a16z about deploying general-purpose robots in US factories and warehouses, where even iPhone packaging is still done by hand, and why he thinks robotics must be built full stack.
The gist
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Gruenstein says robotics is a full-stack systems problem spanning models, hardware, supply chain, customers and product, and ignoring any layer removes most possible trade-offs.
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Tutor connects robots at paying customer sites to human teleoperators called tutors, which Gruenstein says guarantees the training data is economically valuable.
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Since most buyers have never owned a robot, Tutor pitches one at $16 an hour and averages 40 to 60 days to a contract.
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Gruenstein argues US greenfield automation with general robots could be an equalizer with China, which may have to tear down its older automation.
Also mentioned
1:07
Tutor Intelligence
· "I started Tutor about 5 and 1/2 years ago with the core thesis that if you could just start deploying..."
2:03
Claude
· "Claude told me last night that it estimates Tutor robots have helped manufacture and ship over a quarter of..."
17:24
Unitree
· "Nobody deployed any Unitrees in the United States into any... they would have shown up in those numbers,..."
17:39
Fanuc
· "The robots that Fanuc and ABB are building, they're mostly not building in the United States, but even when..."
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