Launch YC S21: Meet the Batch, Thread #6

Replacing the RFID card is just one (small) benefit of our approach. The bigger ones are:

1. Eliminating the internet connection lowers both installation cost and setup complexity for the charger. The RFID card doesn't save you from having to take these (expensive) steps when setting up a site, and to pay for the connection on an ongoing basis.

2. Once you eliminate the external variable of configuring a charger to use an internet connection and a backend, the setup flow becomes virtually a plug and play. This substantially improves scalability as we don't have to train dedicated installers. Any electrician who can read a wiring diagram can bring up a site. And, of course, this translates into lower costs for the user.

Of course you could have a disconnected charger using statically-configured RFID cars that doesn't require #1 and #2 above, but then you can't bill people for what they consume or centrally manage access. This is OK for some small sites, but isn't really a scalable solution.

Companies provide points of contact for these types of legal process to be served on them - it is akin to the registered agent process. Govt agencies do not have the authority to dictate how a company accepts this legal process, only that they comply with the legal order itself. As a result, govt agencies follow the methods of contact that a company provides, whether its a fax number, email address, mailing address, etc.

Agencies are willing to follow the process that a company lays out because it makes engaging with that company easier. It is not in an agency's interest to make the process difficult (i.e. demanding to use fax machines when a company already has a lawenforcment@company.com email set up).

We agree. :)

So far, only Tesla really supports this at scale (and unfortunately it's proprietary so we can't really use it).

However, the coming wave of EVs will finally support ISO15118, which is a global standard that brings this experience to any EV. We'll support it as soon as there's a meaningful population of vehicles out there with the car-side support. Come to our labs in a month or two for a preview ;)

Thanks for the comment!

I see what you're saying, but I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding - Kodex was made to make things easy for the company, not the government. Agencies are never deterred from reaching out to companies because it's "kinda hard," nor because it's different for each company. It actually doesn't even slow them down - data requests are already growing ~25% YOY. Govt agencies get more and more resources to serve subpoenas, but companies are left to fend for themselves with an ever increasing volume. The moment a company receives a subpoena, the company is now legally obligated to respond in one way or another. The nuance is that you don't necessarily have to comply and provide data - the company can push back on the legality of subpoena, but it will still need to be addressed one way or another.

Sure, you can certainly choose noncompliance through bureaucratic friction but that doesn't eliminate your problem as a company, that actually only makes it more burdensome for your company. At some point you still have to address the subpoena.

When a company does not have an intake method for these types of legal inquiries, it only makes it harder on the company...not the agency. The agency will just send the inquiry to any publicly known address, email, etc. In one way or another, if they want to send you a subpoena, they will...aka making the process hard does not prevent them from reaching out to your company, it only makes it hard on your company.

I think a perfect example is Facebook. They built their own Law Enforcement Portal because 1. there was nothing like Kodex that they could buy, and 2. They understood that making the process easier for themselves greatly helped their company with cost of compliance, protecting user privacy, and pushing back on overly broad requests. Did the Facebook LE Portal make it easier for agencies to send them subpoenas? Sure. But it's not as if agencies wouldn't still be sending just as many subpoenas to Facebook if they hadn't built their LE portal...Facebook would still be getting them, it would just be that much harder for Facebook to manage them.

In regards to your example, I understand wanting to do your part to stand up to government overreach. The government is not infallible - they've been on the wrong side of history more than once.

I think the answer to standing up for these issues, is not to create more friction, but instead to facilitate a streamlined process of engaging with government agencies - so you (as a company) can more easily push back on the legality of a subpoena that you don't agree with, and also more easily assist in the very real instances of identifying victims, or subjects, that end up saving a life.

I think this subpoena process has become so sloppy and overwhelming that it is easy to forget that there are victims at the end of this transaction.

If there are subpoenas sent to you regarding a user on your wiki, wouldn't you want to have a clear understanding of what the government is looking at, and why? What threats are on your wiki? Wouldn't you want to easily be able to prioritize a case involving child exploitation, or self-harm, and help protect those users, while also having a better avenue to push back on requests you find to be unjust?

There is a lot that can be fixed in government. This process is one of them. The goal is not to "help the government do their job more easily"... making the process easier for the company, forces the government to do their job BETTER, and helps society move forward.

This is a moonshot if I ever saw one. Exciting stuff.

Does your system also have epithelial lining, with all of the components of innate immunity which integrate with the adaptive immune system?

The role of the nervous system is more and more recognized as being integrated within the immune system - is there any way you can somehow include that in your system as well in the future?