Autonomous vehicles are increasingly becoming a high status symbol for car owners. However, cars that can park themselves aren’t the only self-operating vehicles on the market today. Autonomous robotic technology has recently entered a number of new markets. It’s even rolling up on construction sites across the country.
Built Robotics, which Thursday received $64 million from Tiger Global, is one such company. However, instead of marketing entirely new excavators to construction companies, Built’s technology is able to upgrade existing vehicles to run on their own.
Built’s upgrade kit, the Exosystem, makes it easy to transform excavators into autonomous machines in just a few hours. Contractors have the option to either rent Exosystems to install on their fleets or lease Built’s already upgraded vehicles. Whichever option they choose, contractors pay an hourly fee to license the autonomous software. Built says its customers tend to see a 20 percent reduction in costs compared to traditional excavation models.
The product seems to be a hit so far within the industry. According to Built CEO Noah Ready-Campbell, the company’s entire rental fleet is booked into 2023. He also said in a statement that autonomous excavation is just the first step. He hopes to use the company’s new funding to ramp production and, in the future, expand its offerings into new vehicles like backfills, compaction, loading trucks and more.
“As a leader in autonomous construction technology, Built’s focus on easy-to-install robotic upgrades for heavy equipment is generating significant demand,” Tiger Global partner Griffin Schroeder said in a statement. “We are excited to partner with them as their autonomous trenching solution helps transform the construction of solar farms, oil and gas projects and other large and critical infrastructure projects around the world.”
