Proception settles Tesla lawsuit and raises $11 million for robot hands

In short: Proception says it has settled a trade secret lawsuit with Tesla, raised $11 million, and begun shipping its first robot hand products.

What happened

Proception is a startup working on robotic hands that can move more like human hands. Its founder, Jay Li, previously worked on Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot program.

Tesla sued Li last year, accusing him of taking trade secrets, which are private company know-how, to start Proception. Proception says the two sides reached a settlement and Tesla dismissed the lawsuit earlier this month. Tesla did not respond to a request for comment, according to TechCrunch.

On Monday, Proception announced it raised an $11 million seed funding round, led by First Round Capital. The round also included Y Combinator and BoxGroup.

Proception also said it is shipping the first batch of its “high-dexterity” robotic hand to researchers and robotics companies, and it is opening up to wider orders. “Dexterity” here means fine hand control, like picking up a coin or turning a key.

A key part of Proception’s approach is a sensor-filled glove that records how a human hand moves and touches objects. Think of it like a motion capture suit, but for fingers, and it can record touch and pressure too. Proception says this data can be collected without a robot doing the task at the same time.

Why it matters

Robots are getting better at walking and lifting, but hands are still a major bottleneck. If companies can buy capable robot hands instead of building them from scratch, it could speed up research and make more real-world robot tasks possible.

Source: TechCrunch AI