Central Coast's green-tech scene heats up as startups target waste, energy and transport

A slushie machine that saved New Yorkers during last week's heat wave is drawing fresh attention to a Central Coast startup that repurposes surplus fruit into frozen treats. The company, whose founders declined to be named, operates out of a shared kitchen in the Bayview district and has been fielding calls from local cafés since the wave hit on July 9.

The timing matters. Summer temperatures along the Central Coast have climbed 4.2°F on average over the past decade, according to National Weather Service records cited by the founders. That's pushing more businesses to look for cooling options that don't rely on industrial refrigeration systems running fossil-fuel-powered compressors. The slushie machine uses a phase-change material developed at a University of California lab and requires no electricity once the mix is frozen overnight.

Green hardware finds a home in local coworking spaces

Another homegrown hardware play, Even Realities, a startup based on upper Market Street, is betting that productivity, not surveillance, will sell smart glasses. Its G1 frames ship without a camera, sidestepping the privacy concerns that have dogged competitors. The company announced July 11 that it had closed a $6.2 million seed round led by a Menlo Park venture firm, with participation from the Central Coast Clean Energy Fund.

Even Realities CEO, who asked not to be named, told TechCrunch the glasses use a waveguide display to overlay appointment reminders, meeting notes and turn-by-turn directions. The goal is to reduce screen time for knowledge workers while avoiding the 'creep factor' of always-on recording. Local beta testers at a co-working space in the SoMa district reported a 30% decrease in phone checks during a two-week trial in June, according to data shared by the company.

Robotaxis, cancer research and the big picture

The green-tech surge extends beyond hardware. Reed Jobs, whose father Steve Jobs co-founded Apple, has been raising money for a cancer-fighting biotech fund that includes a sustainability component, less electronic waste from disposable lab equipment, lower energy use in cold storage. He told TechCrunch on July 11 that his focus is translational research, not his last name. His firm, Emerson Collective-backed Yosemite, has yet to announce a Central Coast facility, but sources close to the fund say they are scouting lab space near the Mission Bay campus of UCSF.

And then there are robotaxis. A July 12 TechCrunch report described a regulatory ultimatum facing autonomous-vehicle companies in several cities, including San Francisco, where the California Public Utilities Commission is expected to issue new rules by September 1. The rules could require robotaxi fleets to source 40% of their charging power from renewable energy by 2028. That would directly affect Central Coast-based operators like Cruise, which runs a depot on 16th Street, and Waymo, which maintains a fleet in the Dogpatch neighborhood.

For local startups, the message is clear: sustainability is no longer a marketing add-on. It's a compliance requirement, a cost-saving lever and, increasingly, a product differentiator. The slushie-machine founders say they are already talking to a chain of 12 boba shops across the city about a bulk-purchase deal. Even Realities plans to ship its first production batch of G1 glasses to backers in October, with a retail price of $499.

None of these companies is promising to save the planet on its own. But together, they reflect a shift in the Central Coast's startup culture, away from pure software playbooks and toward physical products that solve tangible environmental problems. The next test will be scale: whether the same investors who fund apps and AI models are willing to back hardware that takes years to reach a million users.