About me

I’m Joe Dong, Founder & CTO of Chestnut Robotics. Previously I lead the end-to-end AI models at XPeng and was an early/core member of Waymo’s foundational large model team. My work sits at the intersection of large-scale AI, robotics systems, and product execution.

Physical AI is moving from demos to real systems. This publication is where I break down the papers, architectures, data pipelines, and product choices that actually matter.

I write three kinds of posts:

Paper Deep Dives — what is genuinely new, what is incremental, and where the real limits are.

Tech Deep Dives — data engines, teleoperation, embodiment, simulation, evaluation, and deployment.

Field Notes — sharper opinions on where robotics is going, where the hype is wrong, and what serious builders and investors should pay attention to.

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