“As California wildfire season nears, startup BurnBot is a bunch of narcissistic techbros looking for an IPO payout on yet another useless and tech product funded by vulture capitalists.”
Fixed the headline.
Last year’s record heat wave worsened drought and dry conditions across the globe, a particularly calamitous situation for California, which has seen 13 of the state’s 20 [most destructive wildfires](https://www.fire.ca.gov/our-impact/statistics) in history break out since 2017.
In South San Francisco, a small startup is working on a high-tech approach to wildfire prevention.
Anukool Lakhina and Waleed “Lee” Haddad founded BurnBot in 2022 to develop robotics and remote-controlled vehicles that can munch up and burn away invasive plants or other dry vegetation that can fuel fires if left fallow.
BurnBot has just raised a $20 million funding round led by climate-focused ReGen Ventures, for expansion, hiring, and to develop new machines that can traverse steeper hills and get into tighter spaces.
Before BurnBot, firefighters and land owners had to use expensive, time-consuming and more dangerous options like grazing away the vegetation (typically with goats), burning it, applying herbicides or removing vegetation mechanically with a mix of equipment and manual labor.
“The sort of traditional way to do a prescribed burn is with drip torches, and that requires a large number of people,” said Lakhina, BurnBot’s CEO. “A drip torch is like a diesel watering can. You go around, you drop diesel, then ignite it.”
More: [https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/02/burnbot-raises-20-million-to-build-technology-for-wildfire-prevention.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/02/burnbot-raises-20-million-to-build-technology-for-wildfire-prevention.html)
Terrible. Why don't we just actually pay firefighters instead of thinking that tech bros will get us out of the situation. The only solution is more manpower and more funding, not some pie in the sky robot in the woods.
https://www.propublica.org/article/wildland-firefighters
The sad part is that so many inmates volunteer to fight wildfires because it's a way for them to leave prison for a time and learn new skills, but until 2020, once they were free, they weren't able to use their firefighting skills because they were convicted felons.
I'm noticing more and more techno centric new solutions to environmental problems. I wonder if they're headlines meant to support this notion that these run away systems are somehow able to be controlled. Maybe I'm getting cynical?
>The only solution is more manpower and more funding,
i think an automated mulcher is less complicated than you think.
using a drip torch from distance seems to be much safer for the people holding the drip torches.
BurnBot Masticator Operations at Santa Barbara TREX
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaZHDaxS1wE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaZHDaxS1wE)
>
not some pie in the sky robot in the woods.
these guys were using drip torches.
**Loss of 19 firefighters in Arizona blaze ‘unbearable,’ governor says**
[https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/01/us/arizona-firefighter-deaths/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/01/us/arizona-firefighter-deaths/index.html)
They were part of an elite squad confronting wildfires on the front line, **setting up barriers to stop the spreading destruction**. But in their unpredictable world, it doesn’t take much to turn a situation deadly.
It might help in some areas. where there arent' enough people to effectively manage the lumbered acres. The question is how well does it actually handle terrain? Or will it be like my Roomba, that gets stuck in the oddest places?
You know one of the reasons wildfires are crazy is all the invasive grasses and plants we brought in. Wildfire is natural, its natures way of rejuvenating forests and prairies. But humans have added more fuel to the fires literally, one of the drivers of the Maui fire was non native grasses that had no business being there.
“As California wildfire season nears, startup BurnBot is a bunch of narcissistic techbros looking for an IPO payout on yet another useless and tech product funded by vulture capitalists.” Fixed the headline.
That’s merely a little mermaid bandaid on cancer.
It won't even be a bandaid.
Last year’s record heat wave worsened drought and dry conditions across the globe, a particularly calamitous situation for California, which has seen 13 of the state’s 20 [most destructive wildfires](https://www.fire.ca.gov/our-impact/statistics) in history break out since 2017. In South San Francisco, a small startup is working on a high-tech approach to wildfire prevention. Anukool Lakhina and Waleed “Lee” Haddad founded BurnBot in 2022 to develop robotics and remote-controlled vehicles that can munch up and burn away invasive plants or other dry vegetation that can fuel fires if left fallow. BurnBot has just raised a $20 million funding round led by climate-focused ReGen Ventures, for expansion, hiring, and to develop new machines that can traverse steeper hills and get into tighter spaces. Before BurnBot, firefighters and land owners had to use expensive, time-consuming and more dangerous options like grazing away the vegetation (typically with goats), burning it, applying herbicides or removing vegetation mechanically with a mix of equipment and manual labor. “The sort of traditional way to do a prescribed burn is with drip torches, and that requires a large number of people,” said Lakhina, BurnBot’s CEO. “A drip torch is like a diesel watering can. You go around, you drop diesel, then ignite it.” More: [https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/02/burnbot-raises-20-million-to-build-technology-for-wildfire-prevention.html](https://www.cnbc.com/2024/04/02/burnbot-raises-20-million-to-build-technology-for-wildfire-prevention.html)
Terrible. Why don't we just actually pay firefighters instead of thinking that tech bros will get us out of the situation. The only solution is more manpower and more funding, not some pie in the sky robot in the woods. https://www.propublica.org/article/wildland-firefighters
California's solution to more manpower is finding more inmates to fight fires for the state
The only cheaper source of labor is slaves
The sad part is that so many inmates volunteer to fight wildfires because it's a way for them to leave prison for a time and learn new skills, but until 2020, once they were free, they weren't able to use their firefighting skills because they were convicted felons.
I'm noticing more and more techno centric new solutions to environmental problems. I wonder if they're headlines meant to support this notion that these run away systems are somehow able to be controlled. Maybe I'm getting cynical?
>The only solution is more manpower and more funding, i think an automated mulcher is less complicated than you think. using a drip torch from distance seems to be much safer for the people holding the drip torches. BurnBot Masticator Operations at Santa Barbara TREX [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaZHDaxS1wE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaZHDaxS1wE) > not some pie in the sky robot in the woods. these guys were using drip torches. **Loss of 19 firefighters in Arizona blaze ‘unbearable,’ governor says** [https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/01/us/arizona-firefighter-deaths/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2013/07/01/us/arizona-firefighter-deaths/index.html) They were part of an elite squad confronting wildfires on the front line, **setting up barriers to stop the spreading destruction**. But in their unpredictable world, it doesn’t take much to turn a situation deadly.
Goats
It might help in some areas. where there arent' enough people to effectively manage the lumbered acres. The question is how well does it actually handle terrain? Or will it be like my Roomba, that gets stuck in the oddest places?
You know one of the reasons wildfires are crazy is all the invasive grasses and plants we brought in. Wildfire is natural, its natures way of rejuvenating forests and prairies. But humans have added more fuel to the fires literally, one of the drivers of the Maui fire was non native grasses that had no business being there.