Comment by HunterWare | Hacker News Reader

Comment by HunterWare | Hacker News Reader

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This is a misleading title and everything else under. From the site:

“How does the Transit Tech Lab work?

Applicants participate in a rigorous selection process that may include in-person presentations. At the conclusion of the application process, the MTA will select companies to participate in an 8-week accelerator to learn about the MTA and modify their technology to meet the transit system's needs. Following the accelerator, the MTA will select the most promising companies to deploy a 12-month, unpaid pilot with the transit system. The Transit Tech Lab offers companies an opportunity to demonstrate their technology in the nation’s largest transit systems and receive mentorship.

Do companies receive compensation for participating in the Transit Tech Lab?

There is no compensation for participation in the Transit Tech Lab, and pilots are unpaid. Companies may apply for limited grant funding from NYSERDA.“

This is not an “incubator evaluation” to anyone but the author of the comment. It’s a technology evaluation for MT(S)A that is designed to not waste their time through a selection process of applicants with a defined path of application and trail.

You really need to read the two contracts. One of them being an addendum related to COVID-19. That's why I provided links to everything. The only reason I had to summarize my findings is that HN limits posts to 2,000 characters...so it's hard to explore corner cases in an initial post.

For example, if we take the text you posted, we are looking at a 12 month unpaid pilot, during which you agree to grant an irrevocable (etc...) license to your IP that explicitly allows them to build, replicate and use your product without paying you a dime. Furthermore, you grant an extension of this license for 9 to 12 months (depending on how you read it) past the pilot period. And, to make it even more fun, you grant them the right to transfer this license to anyone else.

In our case the product is hardware with software and an ML/AI component. It represents a non-trivial amount of investment in both time and money --self funded. In order to participate in this program we have to be willing to watch a random entity reproduce our system and USE IT for basically two years, potentially without compensation. What do you want to bet that the market for these specific COVID-19 devices is very different 18 to 24 months from now?

And then there's the potential for them to grant our IP license to <insert large well-embedded company here> and effectively cut us completely out of the loop.

The more I read and extrapolate these terms the more they seem to stink.

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