Why hardware development takes so long — and why that isn't a flaw in the process There's a question I've been hearing for three years now, in every possible tone of voice. Friendly, impatient, sometimes pitying. It goes: So when are you finally going to sell something? It's a fair question. It's just an incomplete one. Because it assumes that selling is the hard part and everything before it is a kind of preparation. In software, that may well be true. In hardware, it's the

WENDY is Stern Technic’s AI-powered SaaS platform for trenchless (No-Dig) construction – HDD, slurry boring and microtunneling. From route planning and cost calculation to documentation and IoT telemetry, all in one solution.

Stern Technic GmbH — Deep Dive, March 2026** --- Anyone familiar with BOB knows: This project is different. BOB is not an ordinary drill. BOB is an autonomous displacement drill—51 millimeters in diameter, 704 millimeters long, equipped with counter-rotating helixes, an IMU, two Faulhaber motors, and the goal of working its way through the subsurface independently. Without trenching, without excavators, without tearing up roads. And right now, while new mechanical parts are i