The ocean has a fundamental advantage over space for hardware iteration: it covers most of the planet, so you can test in real conditions and get the best possible feedback to iterate quickly.
Unlike space, which is extremely hard to access for testing, the ocean covers most of the planet. If Ulysses can build something water-ready, they can get real-world data immediately — which is always better than simulation — and iterate rapidly. ✦ AI generated
Ulysses founder · a16z Podcast · 2026-08-05 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 6:13
Real world data is always better and always more accurate than any sort of simulation you can do. When going into space, it's a lot harder to access space and just go up to test and get your real world space data. It's not the case with the ocean. You know, most of the planet is covered with it. So, we have this advantage where if we can get something that's ready to go in the water, we can get the best possible feedback to iterate on.
verbatim transcript · starts at 6:13
6:13sort of simulation you can do. When going into space, it's a lot harder to access space [music] and just go up to test and get your real world space data. It's not the case with the ocean. You know, most of the planet [music] is covered with it. So, we have this advantage where if we can get something that's ready to go in the water, we [music] can get the best possible
6:32feedback to iterate on. We want to actually [music] fundamentally change how things are done in the ocean. And that requires us to look at the underwater [music] ecosystem an entirely different way. The broader vision of what we're doing is that you have a network of surface and undersea vehicles and they're operating 24/7 to solve these critical tasks all around the ocean. They become fixed infrastructure in the