A new player in the autonomous construction equipment arena has emerged, armed with $80 million in initial funding and deep autonomy experience.
Founded in 2024 by former leaders at autonomous driving tech company Waymo, Bedrock Robotics aims to deploy aftermarket autonomy hardware and software for heavy equipment by 2026.
The company’s Bedrock Operator platform can accelerate project timelines, increase worker safety and productivity tracking, the company says. The hardware consists of a square rack mounted to the top of the cab that utilizes LiDAR, GPS, inertial measurement units, eight high-definition cameras and an in-cab computer for processing.
Machines equipped with the Bedrock Operator can operator autonomously and indefinitely.Bedrock Robotics
The tech can be installed in a few hours with no permanent modifications to the machine and allows machines to run 24 hours a day with high precision, the company says. Deployments have so far been only on excavators.
Bedrock is collaborating with three contractors and one construction material supplier to test the technology in addition to the company’s own test sites:
- Sundt Construction in Phoenix, Arizona
- Zachry Construction in San Antonio, Texas
- Champion Site Prep in Georgetown, Texas
- Capital Aggregates in San Antonio, Texas
NVentures, the venture capital arm of the graphics processing unit, and software provider Nvidia, were named among the recent investors in Bedrock Robotics’ Seed and Series A funding rounds.
The Bedrock Operator promises real-time data and metrics.Bedrock Robotics
The company’s leadership team includes the following:
- Boris Sofman, co-founder and CEO. Spent four years at Waymo, including three years as the company’s senior director of engineering, head of trucking.
- Tom Eliaz, co-founder and vice president of engineering. Spent three years at customer data platform provider Segment.
- Ajay Gummalla, co-founder and vice president of engineering. Spent seven years as a director of systems and programs at Waymo, as well as 13 years as a hardware technical lead at Google.
- Laurent Hautefeuille, chief operating officer. Spent eight years as executive vice president and chief business development officer at Uber Freight.
A standout among the team is Kevin Peterson, a co-founder and the company’s chief technology officer. Before working for three years as the head of perception for Waymo Via, Peterson founded robotic and autonomy solutions provider Marble Robot in 2016.
In June 2020, Caterpillar acquired Marble and integrated its technology into its construction, quarry, industrial and waste product lines. Peterson then worked as an autonomy architect at Caterpillar for seven months.
