The total deal with Uber was worth about 20M upfront. The rest was milestone driven. Milestones didn’t happen bc Anthony got fired and there was a fatality that shut the program down.
Lidar is solidly worse than the human eye in dust, rain etc. Waymo has struggled w/ dust devils in AZ. Cruise has struggled w/ steam vents in SF. I work at a John Deere subsidiary and we are quite interested in dust performance for field work. From our tests Lidar is low on the list for seeing through small particles.
Lots of things could fix this, less beam divergence, custom signals processing on multiple returns. But out of the box, it’s this statement does not hold true.
Now owned by John Deere. Goal is 10x reduction in chemicals while doubling yields. We’re deep in ml & robotics and our creations scale across the deere fleet touching most of the arable land in the world.
There are a lot of variables and these events don't happen that often so rules are hard to come by. That said being, I've been through three acquisitions and it really depends. How valuable are you personally to their strategy? If you're not, you're likely not going to enjoy it. IE: if you're in accounting and it was an engineering talent acquisition, then it's probably not good. If you are valuable to their strategy, then expect things for you personally to stay the same or improve. The big thing that happens is the company will likely become unbundled and they'll take the parts they like.
My latest has substantially improved the company. We're still very independent, employees made great money and now we have a strategic rudder and a patient investor that we didn't have before. In this case, our tech is very critical to their long term strategy.
I used to work for Anthony at 510 systems. He tried to hire me for Otto as well. Watching this whole thing unfold from, obscure story in 2011 to the Waymo Vs. Uber trial to federal charges and national news is rather surreal. Anthony is one of the most creative, energetic thinkers I've ever encountered. If he stopped taking shortcuts he'd probably be the next Jobs or Musk.
John Deere / Blue River Technology | CV/ML - Software (robotics / embedded) - Full Stack | Full Time | Sunnyvale, CA & San Francisco, CA | ONSITE
For the last 100 years John Deere has been giving farming equipment power in the form of diesel engines. The next 100 years will be about giving machines eyes. If machines have eyes, they can do better work. If they can do better work people get higher yields.
Yup. A few days ago we (60 people) got bought by John Deere for $305M b/c our machine reduced herbicides by 90% using CV/ML. Our only moving part was a solenoid. Would not have survived if it had been more complicated. You clearly get it.
Blue River Technology | Sunnyvale, CA or SF, CA | Onsite | Full Time
Agricultural Robotics. Hiring all types of SW Engineers at all levels especially those with the willingness and aptitude to delve into machine learning. We made a machine that reduces herbicide usage by 95% and dramatically lessens the necessity for GMO's.
Write SW for machines that are 50 feet wide and learn to drive a huge tractor while you're doing it. You'll save farmers a lot of money and keep the rivers blue while you're doing it.
Thank you. I work in Ag and it seems crazy that someone should be able to buy a machine like those Deere sells and be able to modify the controls SW. Can United Airlines update the controls SW on Boeing 747? I'm not sure how tractors are any different.
Relative to HN I'm probably an expert in ag. Relative to people who grow things I'm far from an expert. I was employee 3 at Blue River Technology and I've been there for four years: http://www.bluerivert.com
The way the Valley generally thinks of ag is completely broken and I highly recommend avoiding Valley people if you want to learn about it. "Fully automated" is a thing people who've never farmed before assume is possible and assume people who farm want.
There is a lot of value on the table in ag tech. Depending on what your objectives are, I recommend having as many face to face / dirty boots meetings w/ growers as you can. Understand the realities and nuance of their day to day and find a place where you can make their lives better. Ignore the sensational articles. Most "ag-tech" companies are comically detached from the realities of their intended customers.
If your goal is to grow things then follow the above advice w/ 10x the emphasis. Happy to help further. Contact in profile.