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A comment on Launch HN: Flywheel (YC S25) – Waymo for Excavators. Parent comment

Re:Launch HN: Flywheel (YC S25) – Waymo for Excavators by toomuchtodo on Wednesday September 24, 2025 @01:36PM (#45363517)
Skate to where the puck is going. By the time they're ready for prod (2-4 years), regime change might have occurred. Be ready with a solution to this environmental problem at that time. Lots of oil and gas infra over the next few decades that will require remediation after the world transitions to low carbon energy and electrification, while declining fertility rates globally will mean a shrinking pool of workers to pick from for the human labor component.

Locales who don't want their aquifers contaminated will also be motivated in the near term to get this work done. They would be great test cases for proof of value of this automation imho.

(think in systems)

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Re:Launch HN: Flywheel (YC S25) – Waymo for Excavators by 91bananas on Wednesday September 24, 2025 @01:45PM (#45363644)
Very optimistic thinking in your first 2 sentences there...
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Re:Launch HN: Flywheel (YC S25) – Waymo for Excavators by Onavo on Wednesday September 24, 2025 @01:45PM (#45363652)
Says somebody who has clearly never worked in oil and gas.
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Re:Launch HN: Flywheel (YC S25) – Waymo for Excavators by toomuchtodo on Wednesday September 24, 2025 @01:47PM (#45363675)
I haven't worked in the industry, but a family member does and owns several wells (ie the mineral rights) in Texas, passed down from their deceased parent who was a rig worker.

If you would be so kind as to suggest resources so that I can better educate myself in this domain for any missing nuance, I am open to any and all resources, including me traveling on my own dime to speak with a subject matter expert in person (who I am willing to compensate at a reasonable hourly rate).

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Re:Launch HN: Flywheel (YC S25) – Waymo for Excavators by Onavo on Wednesday September 24, 2025 @02:28PM (#45364209)
Talk to people working in oil and gas at the executive level, or even better, try selling stuff to them. Oil and gas operates on a very different mindset than the nibbling-at-margins product-led-growth models that are so prevalent on HN.

The only metric that matters at the end of the day is how to print more money i.e. drill more oil. Literally nothing else matters, and compliance goes to the lowest bidder to make the problem go away. Right now that means playing nice with the whitehouse and hopefully bypassing the rest of the pesky EPA. I assure you not a single person in oil and gas likes the EPA, nor the infamous Subpart W.

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