{"id":90598,"title":"HABIT: Neighborhood robotics — starting with car details.","tagline":"Deploying robotic services to neighborhoods nationwide. Starting with car details.","body":"**TL;DR** - HABIT is building a **robotic car detail**. Convenience of a tunnel wash + premium services of a human detailer. \n\n**Watch our launch video to learn more!**\n\nhttps://youtu.be/gOQL87xoUxk \n\n**Team: SWE / Investment Banker + Applied Scientist**\n\n* [Michael](https://linkedin.com/in/michaeltrehan): prev. Sr. SWE at Radiant Nuclear ($150M+ raised); Investment Banker at JPM\n* [Harish](https://www.linkedin.com/in/harishkpalani): prev. AI/ML Research Scientist at Twitch \u0026 Amazon\n* We both met at UC Berkeley freshman year\n\n**Americans spend $20B a year on car washes**\n\n* A single operator with locations in just 21 states earned $1B last year\n\n**But car details suck**\n\n* Automatic washes scratch paint and don’t offer services like ceramic coating ($1,500+)\n* That’s why Americans spend $4.2B a year on manual details and hand washes\n* Human detailers are slow (hour-long wait), expensive ($50+), and inconsistent\n\n**So HABIT is building the first robotic car detail**\n\n* Throughput and convenience of an automatic wash\n* Results and premium price point of a human — starting with exterior details\n\n**Car detailing is our first vertical**\n\n* Small businesses across America don’t want to buy, maintain, or equip a humanoid fleet\n* HABIT centers will act as your neighborhood’s humanoid fleet manager\n\n**Our ask:** Car wash operators have been lining up for our system. So if you know a car wash operator (or are one), hit us up! [founders@habitrobotics.com](mailto:founders@habitrobotics.com)\n\n![uploaded image](/media/?type=post\u0026id=90598\u0026key=user_uploads/872167/da84add8-24ad-4fb5-a7b6-fa9ab4586d5e)\n\n","slug":"NZG-habit-neighborhood-robotics-starting-with-car-details","created_at":"2025-05-21T16:13:12.480Z","updated_at":"2026-05-25T03:26:54.942Z","total_vote_count":70,"url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/launches/NZG-habit-neighborhood-robotics-starting-with-car-details","share_image_url":"https://www.ycombinator.com/media/?type=post\u0026id=90598\u0026key=user_uploads/872167/da84add8-24ad-4fb5-a7b6-fa9ab4586d5e","company":{"id":30469,"name":"HABIT","slug":"habit","url":"https://habitrobotics.com","logo":"https://bookface-images.s3.amazonaws.com/small_logos/346513b86ce82dc04f53e62543ed7ec57a508425.png","batch":"Spring 2025","industry":"B2B","tags":["Robotics","Consumer","B2B","Retail","AI"],"search_path":"https://bookface.ycombinator.com/company/30469"}}