Ritukar Vijay, founder of robotics startup Ottonomy, explains how vehicular autonomy classifications (Levels 0–5) apply to autonomous mobile robots.
Insight
Vijay: Early-stage startups should use patents defensively, not offensively
“Strategy for early stage startups should you know, my recommendation should never be on the offensive, that we have this patent, so you can't do it. Rather, it should be the other way around, since we have the patent, so we are, you know, legit to do it.”
Opinion
Vijay: Tesla Autopilot functions as a Level 3 autonomous system
“But the current version of Tesla Autopilot is pretty much, you know, crossing L, L three, L four, you know, area. So it remains as an L three system yet, because there is a human in the loop. You know, there's a human behind the wheel still. So that's where, y…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Vijay: Hardly any vertically-focused robotics startups reached billion-dollar valuations over last decade
“You see, in last 10 years, there are hardly any billion dollar, you know, robotics companies which were vertically growing.”
Insight
Vijay: Startups should never patent their secret sauce because patents get published
“There are a few things which should not be patented, like secret sauce of the system. They should not be patented because, you know, at the end of the day, patents also get published, right? So once they are granted, everything is out. So I mean not everything…”
Disclosure
Ottonomy rovers deliver Amazon packages with DPD in Milton Keynes
“These robots are also doing last mile delivery for a customer in in London, in Milton Keynes with DPD who are actually you know, it's a logistics company delivering all the Amazon packages in Milton Keynes.”
Insight
Vijay: Commercial robotics is now a horizontal platform, not single-purpose hardware
“So, I think, ah, it is not 20 14 where we have purpose-built robot to do just one thing. Right. We are living in 2025, where, ah, it's more of a horizontal play, where you have these robots, ah, you know, running in different ODDs or, you know, operational are…”