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The Merge · Sunday · 38 min

E64 – Autonomy Is a Software Problem

The Pentagon wants thousands of autonomous systems. The question is who builds them and how fast. Joey Arora sits down with Paul Lwin, Co-Founder and CEO of Havoc, to talk about collaborative autonomy and why the path to mass runs through software, not shipyards. Havoc builds autonomy software that turns commercial platforms into autonomous systems across sea, air, and land. Founded in January 2024, the company has integrated on more than 200 vessels without owning a single shipyard. Paul's take is direct. Don't reinvent the boat. Partner with the people who already build thousands of them. Topics include: • Collaborative autonomy and human-on-the-loop control • Software-defined hardware and the 90/10 split • The CSBC Taiwan partnership and in-country production • Operating without persistent comms • Two acquisitions before the company's third birthday • The Rhode Island maritime innovation cluster • Moving from prototype to production contracts SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE to get more intel on defense tech, news, and happenings! Links • Sign up for the newsletter! https://www.themerge.co/ • Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/the_merge • Havoc homepage https://www.havocai.com/ • Paul LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-lwin/ Follow us on... • LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/themerge • Instagram https://www.instagram.com/merge_newsletter/ • X https://x.com/MergeNewsletter • Facebook https://www.facebook.com/themergenews • Website https://www.themerge.co/

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transcript

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show notes

The Pentagon wants thousands of autonomous systems. The question is who builds them and how fast.

Joey Arora sits down with Paul Lwin, Co-Founder and CEO of Havoc, to talk about collaborative autonomy and why the path to mass runs through software, not shipyards.

Havoc builds autonomy software that turns commercial platforms into autonomous systems across sea, air, and land. Founded in January 2024, the company has integrated on more than 200 vessels without owning a single shipyard.

Paul's take is direct. Don't reinvent the boat. Partner with the people who already build thousands of them.

Topics include:

• Collaborative autonomy and human-on-the-loop control

• Software-defined hardware and the 90/10 split

• The CSBC Taiwan partnership and in-country production

• Operating without persistent comms

• Two acquisitions before the company's third birthday

• The Rhode Island maritime innovation cluster

• Moving from prototype to production contracts

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE to get more intel on defense tech, news, and happenings!

Links

• Sign up for the newsletter! https://www.themerge.co/

• Support us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/the_merge

• Havoc homepage https://www.havocai.com/

• Paul LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-lwin/

Follow us on...

• LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/themerge

• Instagram https://www.instagram.com/merge_newsletter/

• X https://x.com/MergeNewsletter

• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/themergenews

• Website https://www.themerge.co/