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cover of episode Building Hard Tech in Hard Markets: Kyle Vogt on Cruise, Twitch, and The Bot Company

Building Hard Tech in Hard Markets: Kyle Vogt on Cruise, Twitch, and The Bot Company

2025/2/20
logo of podcast No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups

No Priors: Artificial Intelligence | Technology | Startups
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我于2013年创立Cruise时，面对谷歌强大的自动驾驶项目，采取了精益创业的策略，从改装汽车开始，逐步发展到研发自动驾驶出租车。这与特斯拉的商业模式形成对比，特斯拉通过盈利来支持自动驾驶技术的研发，而其他公司则在亏损中发展。 大型语言模型和生成模型的进步，使得基于摄像头的自动驾驶方案成为可能，降低了成本并提高了效率。 在自动驾驶领域，中国市场存在大量远程操控的自动驾驶车辆，这在一定程度上加快了数据收集和技术发展，但同时也反映出技术上的差距。 我创立Bot Company的初衷是继续我的建造者身份，专注于具有挑战性的技术问题和令人惊叹的产品，同时兼顾影响力和乐趣。家用机器人可以自动化人们日常生活中大量的琐碎家务，从而解放人们的时间，提高生活质量。 家用机器人的产品发布门槛比自动驾驶汽车低，部分有用的功能即可上市。 机器人领域将会出现类似于自动驾驶领域的洗牌效应，许多公司会因为质量问题或市场适应性问题而失败，但少数优秀公司将会存活下来。 对于新技术的接受度，一开始普遍存在怀疑，但实际体验能有效消除这种怀疑，口碑传播至关重要。 家用机器人的发展时间线难以预测，因为存在许多未知的因素，需要通过不断尝试和探索来确定。 美国公司在硬件制造方面难以与中国竞争，需要专注于软件和产品体验来获得竞争优势。 为了促进美国机器人产业的竞争力，政府应该制定合理的监管框架，平衡创新和安全之间的关系。 我从Cruise的经历中吸取的教训是：永远不再出售公司，保持公司规模小而精干，充分利用人工智能技术提高效率。

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Kyle Vogt, a serial entrepreneur, co-founded Twitch and Cruise before launching The Bot Company, focusing on AI-powered home robotics. His journey reflects a shift from exploration to impact-driven ventures, highlighting the challenges and rewards of building transformative technology.
  • Co-founded Twitch and Cruise
  • Founded The Bot Company focusing on home robotics
  • Cruise was acquired by GM for $1 billion
  • Early Cruise approach focused on a lean startup model and retrofitting existing cars

Shownotes Transcript

Kyle Vogt joins Sarah and Elad on this week’s episode of No Priors. A serial entrepreneur, Kyle co-founded Twitch, transforming live streaming, and later Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company acquired by GM for $1 billion. Now he’s taking on AI-powered home robotics with The Bot Company. In this episode, Kyle shares his journey building transformative tech companies, the challenges of scaling autonomous systems, and why he believes home robots are the next frontier. They also discuss the parallels between AVs and robotics, overcoming consumer skepticism, US vs. China manufacturing, and the policies needed to foster a competitive robotics industry.

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Show Notes: 

0:00 Introduction

0:29 Founding Cruise 

3:12 Tesla vs. Waymo approach

4:44 Scaling autonomous vehicles

10:03 The Bot Company 

16:35 Deploying  robots in the home

17:56 Parallels between robots and AV markets

20:51 Personifying robots and overcoming consumer skepticism

25:00 Timeline on consumer robots

26:47 Chinese vs. US manufacturing 

29:15 Fostering a competitive domestic robotics industry

34:00 Lessons from Cruise & personal philosophies