Annual Bay Area relay run

A small break from labs, testing rigs and calibration

Last weekend, a group of AEVA engineers and operations staff stepped away from their usual environment of gait rigs, thermal chambers and diagnostics stations to take part in the annual Bay Area relay run. The event brought together teams from local tech and research organizations for a low-pressure, early-morning course along the waterfront.

A steady pace, nothing theatrical

AEVA’s team approached the relay with the same philosophy they apply to robotics work: keep the pace steady, avoid unnecessary theatrics and focus on finishing cleanly. Several participants said it was a rare chance to talk about something other than force-limit tuning, motor acoustics or mapping density.

The relay wasn’t treated as a competition. Most of the group described it as simply “a controlled outdoor test of human cardiovascular systems.”

A reminder that engineering culture is built by people

While the company’s public presence often centers on autonomous systems, the relay was a straightforward reminder that AEVA’s work depends on the people designing and validating those systems. Informal events like these help cross-functional teams reconnect outside of lab schedules and deployment cycles.

Back to work on Monday

The team returned to the calibration lab and Tallinn R&D node the next week with the usual focus: stable gait, deterministic reasoning, and safety boundaries that behave exactly as expected. The relay didn’t change AEVA’s engineering roadmap, but it added a quiet moment of cohesion to a company built on precision and consistency.