This Startup Brought a Remote-Controlled Excavator at Demo Day

A robotaxi playbook… for dirt. Flywheel AI is turning excavators into remotely operated, camera-first machines — collecting the data to make them autonomous next.

In this YC-insider episode, we unpack Flywheel AI’s “Waymo for excavators” strategy: retrofit any machine in hours, deliver value with tele-op now, and use that profitably collected data to train autonomy later. We get into labor shortages, safety economics (OSHA penalties), competitor traps (drive-by-wire only), and how to actually do hardware at YC in 90 days without getting stuck in pilot hell.

You’ll learn

Why construction’s bottleneck is skilled operators — and how tele-op removes it

The dangerous blind-spot reality on sites and the true cost of safety incidents

Flywheel’s retrofit + single-screen UX that works on any excavator brand/size

The autonomy roadmap: camera-only stack, data flywheel, edge-case capture

How to win data rights on site (be the only retrofit, own the dataset)

The YC hardware playbook: sell first, build last; parallelize to kill lead-time

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Chapters:

00:00 From Sandbox to Real Excavator: The Journey Begins

00:20 Introducing Flywheel AI: Revolutionizing Excavators

01:49 The Labor Shortage Crisis in Construction

03:51 The Dangers of Operating Excavators

05:58 Teleoperation: Enhancing Safety and Efficiency

11:28 The Path to Autonomous Excavators

16:34 Competing in the Autonomous Excavator Market

22:26 Demo Day: Bringing an Excavator to YC

24:37 Returning the Excavator

24:47 Demo Day Setup and Reactions

26:04 Autonomy and Data Training

26:38 Joining YC and Initial Thoughts

28:03 YC's Impact on Hardware Startups

29:18 Building and Iterating Hardware

33:13 Advice for Hardware Startups

34:49 Final Thoughts and Reflections

45:03 Accelerating Iteration Cycles

48:38 Conclusion and Contact Information