§ QUESTIONS
Asked,
answered.
The questions we actually get, answered the way we’d answer them in the room. No hedging.
LAST UPDATED · JULY 27, 2026FOUNDER-LED · PRE-MODEL · FOUR OPEN ROLES
Do you build weapons?Weapons systems are on the roadmap; Vertex does not currently have a deployed model. Any future armed system is intended for lawful operators under a fixed constraint: weapons-release authority never moves to a model on its own. A human authorizes the action. That is policy commitment L-01 in the ledger. Current research centers on evaluation, reconnaissance, CASEVAC, and route-clearance concepts.
Is the benchmark data real?The v0.0.4 paper reports 149 open-book trajectories, 90 closed-book episodes with a 4,224-citation audit, and a separate 27-episode overload study. The paper also reports the limitations plainly: single-vendor, small and asymmetric n, resolver sensitivity, harness bugs found and fixed, and 0/46 current SME sign-offs. The matching public trajectory artifact sync is still pending, and the site labels that gap directly. Read the evidence and limitations.
Why should an eval company build robots? (or vice versa)The benchmark isn’t a side project — it’s the spec. A model that can’t stay inside documented doctrine on a text feed has no business on a chassis in a burning building. We build the eval first so the robot has something to pass.
Why a solo founder?Because the founding team should form around the work, not before it. Romir is hiring the first team now — four roles are currently open, each one written like we mean it.
Are you hiring? What’s the process?Yes — researchers, robotics engineers, infra, operations. Seven stages, documented end to end, with no AI-conducted interview anywhere in it. Finalists sometimes shadow a quarterly field day before signing.
Can my department / unit / agency work with you?If you run real calls and will tell us what actually goes wrong, yes — that’s the partnership. Field days, ride-alongs, doctrine review. Start with the page for your world — fire, EMS, rescue, military — and email hello@apxlabs.dev.
When does hardware ship?The roadmap is public and stage-based. Vertex does not publish a hardware date before a model and its safety gates exist.