5 ms·
Ask HN: I quit my job over weaponized robots to start my own venture
Two weeks ago, I quit my job at a robotics company. I was working with high-end hardware (Boston Dynamics, Unitree), but I found out they were planning to mount teleoperated weapons on the robotic platforms for a demo. I’m not willing to go there, so I resigned without another offer.
I’ve decided this is the right time to go back to entrepreneurship. We're at an incredible moment for embodied intelligence, but I feel the tools and workflows we use to interact, monitor, and control these platforms are still lagging behind.
I'm currently exploring a couple of projects around how we build, test, and interact with robots. As part of my customer discovery phase, I'm trying to gather raw data on how roboticists and developers actually work day to day and what their main pain points are regarding control interfaces.
I put together a very short survey (3 mins) to validate some ideas. If you work in robotics, embedded systems, or just tinker with hardware, your input would be incredibly valuable:
Survey link: https://forms.gle/3Nm76wkeT5CMt23c8 https://forms.gle/3Nm76wkeT5CMt23c8
I'm also open to discussing the ethical lines in modern robotics or anything related to ROS2 / HRI in the thread. Thanks for reading!
- rvz 6mo agoUnfortunately, this is where robotics is going to end up. We already have drones being used in warfare. Humanoids are next. Won't be surprised to see hundreds of thousands of humanoid robots strapped up with explosives running to their target or some of them flying to their target with drones attached.
- XorNot 6mo agoWhy would you build a very expensive bipedal robot to suicide bomb someone, when as you note, a very cheap flying drone could do the same thing? (and more over: already is, this is literally how drones are used in Ukraine). Which of course leads to point 2: it's very easy to take a moral stance on weapons when you don't think you're in any danger, nor going to be doing any of the fighting otherwise.
- perlgeek 6mo agoYet there are also many civil uses for drones, and I can totally understand the desire to involved only with the civil side of robotics.
- ukd1 6mo agoWell humanoid / non-flying robotic weapons are already being used, and have been for a while. e.g. Zelenskyy https://x.com/KaterynaLis/status/2043827043863863404?s=20 https://x.com/KaterynaLis/status/2043827043863863404?s=20 talking about their successful use recently.
- sarchertech 6mo agoHe’s not talking about humanoid robots. He’s talking about tracked and wheeled weapons platforms that are essentially small RC tanks.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- Tangurena2 6mo agoI don't see bipedal murderbots being commonplace - they're a lot slower than 4-legged "Big Dogs". I think that the Ukraine war has shown that "slaughterbots" are far more likely. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2tpwW0kmU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-2tpwW0kmU
- laydn 6mo agobipedal murderbots... not yet... I think advanced exoskeletons will be there first. They are already testing basic ones in the field: https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-exoskeleton-test-battle-fold-briefcase-run-artillery-shell-2026-3 https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-exoskeleton-test-bat...
- taffydavid 6mo agoSomething like the robot from interstellar is probably more likely. All the drone warfare developments remind me of the introduction of tanks during the first world war and perfected by the second world war. In the space of a few years they changed warfare. Then planes changed warfare again. Now drones. Makes you wonder what the next thing will be
- Brian_K_White 6mo agoThat may be true but doesn't matter. The fact that weapons will exist and even the fact that they must exist, and even the fact that you benefit from them existing, none of that means you are obligated to work on or with them yourself. Cakes exist and I even like them, and I do not choose to work at a bakery.
- ForHackernews 6mo agoWhy would they have to be killer robots strapped with explosives? If we have highly capable semi-autonomous robots they could be non-lethal with no risk of life to their owners. It upends the entire paradigm of kill-or-be-killed warfare. Rather than blowing up a school full of little girls, you could deploy a swarm of thousands of fast-moving cat-sized robots armed with tasers and bolas to identify and capture targeted enemy leaders.
- Imustaskforhelp 6mo agocan I recommend to you to not use google forms, I know that they are convenient but they aren't privacy friendly. There are many open source solutions out there: https://alternativeto.net/software/google-forms/?license=opensource https://alternativeto.net/software/google-forms/?license=ope... I recommend if you can choose any of privacy friendly options, thanks and have a nice day.
- macrolet 6mo agoPerhaps we need something like hnforms or startupforms, to help founders?
- cardamomo 6mo agoMy hot take: if a founder can't spin up a simple, self-hosted webform of some sort, I'm already wary of their technical skills.
- wepple 6mo agoSpinning it up is not the problem. You want to spend the time to throughly test it (or have your agent swarm test it) so you don’t waste the opportunity of having HN input? I’d be wary of a founder with such bad NIH
- recursivegirth 6mo agoSlightly agree, however I prefer third party forms as it usually avoids a bunch of the BS with bot submissions, etc.
- macrolet 6mo agoI would let them do the opposite. I would make hnforms (maybe mdforms) based on the following idea. Write a form in .md (even tell an llm to do it) and just put it online.
- 4ndrewl 6mo agoOnly applicable if their core business is form-adjacent. Web forms are simple like that slack notification thing is simple.
- robin_reala 6mo agoYou didn’t know Boston Dynamics was involved in weaponised platforms until 2 weeks ago? That feels like wilful ignorance at this point; DARPA was sponsoring BigDog which was revealed two decades ago: https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8802-robotic-pack-mule-displays-stunning-reflexes/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8802-robotic-pack-mul...
- Philpax 6mo agoThey weren't working for BD, they were working for a company using BD's platforms.
- embedding-shape 6mo agoPeople sometimes do things they aren't sure about, and then change their mind when the proof is right in front of them. I don't think this makes them a bad person, or wilful ignorance, maybe naive or optimistic, but you could accept employment with a company who you know had "shady" sponsors in the past hoping they'll do better in the future, then when the evidence mounts against the future actually being better, you decide to leave. Human emotions and reasoning could be internally inconsistent and conflicting, yet everything is as it should be, counter-intuitively.
- horsawlarway 6mo agoBoston Dynamics sells hardware as platforms for other companies to build on (ex: Spot/Stretch). He said he worked with their hardware, not that he worked for Boston Dynamics. Entirely possible to be working with a platform provided by Boston Dynamics at a company that is not engaged in weapons development.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- pj_mukh 6mo agoBoston Dynamics has sworn off all war machine development [1]. But as expected, others have taken their place [2]. Guilt-tripping a single non-monopoly proving useless again. [1]: https://bostondynamics.com/news/general-purpose-robots-should-not-be-weaponized/ https://bostondynamics.com/news/general-purpose-robots-shoul... [2]: https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20260323PD219/military-boston-dynamics-supply-chain-adoption-taiwan.html https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20260323PD219/military-bosto...
- vb-8448 6mo ago> I’m not willing to go there Unfortunately it doesn't matter, some else will go ... just look at the ukr war.
- busterarm 6mo agoYeah, can I have OP's old job?
- 2ndorderthought 6mo ago[dead]
- jMyles 6mo agoThank you so much for quitting and putting the long-term needs of humanity over your short-term economic comfort. This is nothing short of a heroic move. I hope you are able to convince some of your colleagues to do likewise.
- Chance-Device 6mo agoI do not work in robotics, but I would also like to thank you for listening to your conscience and resigning. The world needs more people like you. I hope your venture goes well!
- sminchev 6mo agoRobots are everywhere. Especially in the factories. I think making things automatic is good, all those stupid jobs, moving all day something from one place to another, manually is pure waste of human energy. If this energy is redirected to education, and more meaningful work, those people will be much more valuable for their community and the world. If robots are used in that direction, they can do a lot of good things, and there will be no ethical lines to cross. Helping people enhance is a good thing!
- idiotsecant 6mo agoNobody is objecting to the loss of bad jobs. The jobs themselves are not the problem. The problem is that we tie basic human dignity to how much value that human can produce, and then remove the ability to produce that value. It leads to the stratification of society between the people who own the automation and the people who don't. That's always been a problem but we're about to enter a period of exponentially worse growth of that problem, beyond the ability of social systems to handle. A 'k shaped' future is not stable.
- pizza234 6mo ago> Nobody is objecting to the loss of bad jobs. The jobs themselves are not the problem. Very strong disagree; a lot of people is objecting. A job on an assembly line may be "bad" for somebody, but for somebody else can be a lifeline, if they won't be able to find another job soon enough and/or in reasonable conditions. Long-term, the job market can rebalance (and if unemployed people are supported in their education, it's great), but short-term displacement is a serious issue.
- bcjdjsndon 6mo agoIf your job is that tedious a robot could do it, it's a bad job. Do you think Sam Altman wastes a single minute on operations and the actual minutae of running a business? Fuck no he gets wageslaves like me and yo to do it
- 6mo ago
- testemailfordg2 6mo agoI guess people making swords and arrows in the past had similar ethical dilemas in the begining, until they were attacked and then it became business as usual.
- arvid-lind 6mo agoI would assume those things (at least arrows) were created for hunting food rather than killing other people, but I could be wrong. Maybe the tech there is that a lot of weapons can be created with simple components. With robotics and AI, it feels like there are a lot of directions it could go that would lead to higher quality of life and not just temporary advantages for killing other people.
- tqwhite 6mo agoTough call giving up a good job. Admiration.
- gilhyun 6mo ago[dead]
- 440bx 6mo agoGood on you. I quit my job in the defence sector over two decades ago for the same reasons. Best decision I ever made.
- bcjdjsndon 6mo agoAt what point did you realise what the defence sector was?
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- 440bx 6mo agoWell it's not all bad. Some of the stuff we did was entirely defence and disaster support. I basically got to choose projects I worked on until I was told I couldn't.
- bcjdjsndon 6mo agoOh you mean defence = good, offence = bad?
- 440bx 6mo agoNot really. Offence is sometimes the best defence. But when people start rubbing their hands at the prospect of a war being their retirement plan I don't want to be around them.
- nicbou 6mo agoGood for you. I find it disgusting when people get excited about all the misery to come, because it gets them a nicer car or something. Relevant: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=chWCcec_gzg https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=chWCcec_gzg
- shevy-java 6mo agoI think ethics will often fall short in general. I don't mean this to be limited to the comment above by the threadstarter, but when it comes to money, most people will choose money. People will have different threshold levels of what they want to accept. Using a survey like this is IMO not ideal though.
- specproc 6mo agoThere are so many ways to make money. One doesn't need to compromise on one's values to earn.
- surgical_fire 6mo agoIf OP's story is true, it is commendable. Not everyone will choose principles over money. I was in the past in the position of working for a corporation I personally consider to be vile, damaging to the world and society. Took me about 3 years to move elsewhere. I was not in the position to just quit, both due to finances and due to visa requirements. I don't fault the common man for having to put up with things. But I will commend those that have the fortitude to at least turn and walk away.
- leetrout 6mo agoI am building a very similar thing after a short stent at a robotics company in 2024. The industry is very far behind more general dev experience and tooling. I am forced to accept the popularity of ROS but I find it to generally be a terrible experience. Are you considering an alternative? Have you used foxglove?
- barratia 6mo agoHey! Great to hear from someone in the same boat. I completely agree, the general dev experience and tooling around ROS can be deeply frustrating... I am definitely looking into Foxglove! It seems to solve many of the transport/protocol headaches, but I feel like there's still a massive gap in how we actually interact with the robots day to day, especially when you are not glued to a desktop monitor. I'd love to hear more about your experience. What specific part of the tooling drove you crazy enough to start building an alternative? (Also, if you are open to a quick 15-min chat to share "war" stories, let me know!)
- leetrout 6mo agoWould love to. My email is my username at gmail or my first name at my username dot com.
- chfritz 6mo agoFoxglove is not the only name in town. There are many, Transitive Robotics, the company I'm building is one of them. Different from Foxglove we are much more focused on live-remote monitoring and control, e.g., we have a pretty popular remote teleoperation module: https://transitiverobotics.com/caps/transitive-robotics/remote-teleop/ https://transitiverobotics.com/caps/transitive-robotics/remo... You can find all the other modules we're currently offering here: https://transitiverobotics.com/caps/ https://transitiverobotics.com/caps/ The platform itself is and remains open-source.
- deleted 6mo ago[deleted]
- rcxdude 6mo ago
- claudiacsf 6mo agoNot helpful if all detractors leave a company that's going down a dangerous path, leaving all the trigger happy peeps to follow their worst instincts. But understandable regardless.
- specproc 6mo agoMuch love and respect. I quit a job over a similar matter of principle. The decision to walk was easy, but the following year wasn't. I'm glad I did it though. We have to few years on this earth to spend our energies hurting others.
- bcjdjsndon 6mo ago> We have to few years on this earth to spend our energies hurting others. Don't you live in a nation state that uses violence to maintain the order that you've come to enjoy? Here's a harsh dose of reality for ya, suffering is unavoidable... the trick is convincing the worker class that it's easier to just cooperate
- estearum 6mo agoall suffering is equal in amount and necessity therefore it makes no sense to consider one's own role in producing, mitigating, or directing suffering in the world i am very smart /s
- specproc 6mo agoI've lived in a lot of places, many of them on the receiving end. I'm from a western country originally though, sure. Can't think of any wars we've been in during my lifetime that have done me much good. All wars of choice and aggression.
- rkozik1989 6mo agoGood on you for quitting, but unless you know of people in your network who're willing to buy what you're making not sure if this will work. Often times its the simplest ideas that make the most profitable businesses. You know, like selling handmade soap or coffee. The problem with what you're doing is you are trying to enter a market as the first person doing it. Which means nobody has taken the risk to prove there is a demand, and without that it means you're potentially burning a ton of time and resources with no logical place to pivot to next.
- martythemaniak 6mo agoAfter many many years in fintech, I'm now getting into robotics by trying to build an autonomous snow clearing robot, think of it like a miniature electric loader. I've been using AI heavily to do this, so everything is in ROS2 since it's "standard" and AIs have pretty good training for it. I can see how it's annoying and suboptimal if you're writing manually and after a more integrated system, but it's been pretty good for getting up and running because it's "standard" and kinda plug and play. I see why you'd want to rewrite it for production, the endless processes and nodes and startup processes can get annoying One of the more useful things I've done so far is actually not robotics related directly, it's a Godot based "game" with a ROS bridge that lets me drive the robot from Foxglove, which I will eventlly get a vlm based agent to drive. Seems much easier and faster than Issac Sim for getting started with.
- moomoo11 6mo ago[flagged]
- estearum 6mo agoThe only thing cringe is acting as if the answer to this age-old dilemma is obvious or the impact of any one person's decision is easy to calculate. Virtue signaling > vice signaling every day :)
- moomoo11 6mo agoBoth of them are fake and lame. The truth is in the middle. Just like the OP’s post where he claims a moral high ground but then proceeds to feed the monster he created. Why not just skip the fake bs and just say he’s going to make something cool? Then again, engineers built the Death Star in Star Wars. I’m sure it was interesting work.
- estearum 6mo agoI don't think someone posting about their own moral calculus and decision-making necessarily constitutes "claiming the moral high ground". If you honestly felt like this post was an affront to your own moral footing, perhaps consider that a prompt for some introspection instead of lashing out at strangers in the comment section.
- senordevnyc 6mo agoNowhere near as cringe as your rude and vapid commentary.
- moomoo11 6mo ago[flagged]
- senordevnyc 6mo ago[flagged]
- rupurt 6mo agoCongrats! I'm on a similar journey. I took flight 6 weeks ago and built a turn based board engine for human/agent delivery teams called Keel https://www.spoke.sh/keel https://www.spoke.sh/keel. The grand vision is to apply the board engine as a control mechanism for work to be done and verified in deployed robot fleets.
- thesmok 6mo agoAs a citizen of a country currently defending in a war, unmanned systems are a literal lifesaver. We can send an armed robot where we previously would have to send a soldier. This is a good thing and before the war many had the same pacifist sentiment in the tech sector, but it's completely reversed now. Though I can understand your position being in a country that's not defending itself currently.
- rl3 6mo ago>... but I found out they were planning to mount teleoperated weapons on the robotic platforms for a demo. I’m not willing to go there, so I resigned without another offer. There's a ton of anti-drone defense startups currently, but how does one defend against armed bipedal robots? They're a lot heavier than most drones, so presumably they can be decked out with various types of shielding. As far as I'm aware, phased plasma rifles in the 40-watt range don't yet exist.
- nicbou 6mo agoMetal, accelerated to roughly two thousand feet per second, usually does the trick.
- rl3 6mo agoThat won't work for long. I'm putting my money on miniature RC Incom T-47s complete with tow cables. It should be required that as soon as firmware detects that its bipedal host has, in fact—had its legs tied up by a snow speeder—that it must proceed with a claymation-style display of panic before falling onto its face.