autonomous

Autonomous construction tech startup Bedrock Robotics has just closed on a $270 million Series B funding round that brings total investment in the self-driving roller and excavator firm to more than $350 million. (!)

What happens when you deploy 100 massive, driverless, and fully electric heavy haul trucks at a working mine? After nearly a year of continuous operation, one mining company is already finding out. Here’s how their great experiment is going.

Swedish electric and autonomous trucking group Einride has made progress on its plan to take the company’s stock public through a $1.35 billion SPAC deal with Legato Merger Corp. III following a $113 million oversubscribed capital raise.

Chinese equipment brand Boonray has developed an autonomous, battery-swapping electric mining truck that it hopes will revolutionize the global mining industry – and global EV leader BYD just gave it a multimillion dollar vote of confidence.

An 800 lb. gorilla just entered the race to electrify the commercial lawn care space as Honda has officially begun production of its new ProZision series of battery-electric zero-turn mowers — including the all-new, all-electric ProZision Autonomous ZTR.

Kubota showed up to CES 2026 with a number of advanced, autonomous, and electric agricultural equipment meant to make farming cleaner and greener. The best part? The company’s latest farm robot is called Transformer, and it’s just begging for an action figure!

Instead of betting the farm on fully self-driving trucks from the jump, Chinese equipment and heavy truck brand SANY is putting a seasoned driver in a lead vehicle with as many as four autonomous heavy trucks programmed to follow his lead.

Volkswagen is putting its Tesla Robotaxi rival through its paces in Wolfsburg, Germany, where the self-driving Gen.Urban research vehicle is now driving autonomously in real urban traffic – without a steering wheel or pedals!

The Japanese agriculture equipment experts Kubota are partnering with Norwegian tech startup Kilter to co-develop, pilot, and promote the new Kilter AX-1 ultra high-precision weeding robot across Europe.

It seems like the writing was already on the wall last week when Volvo moved to make its Luminar-supplied LiDAR system an option – there are now reports that the Swedish car brand is set to ditch LiDAR tech entirely in 2026.

Founded in 1689, Husqvarna was a musket maker for the king of Sweden – but now, the company best known for quirky motorcycles and commercial riding mowers is becoming an innovator in the field of robotics, and its latest fleet of electric autonomous mowers are eager to get grazing.

Electric logistics company Einride is set to go public through a SPAC merger deal with blank-check firm Legato Merger Corp. that values the Swedish brand at a staggering $1.8 billion. (!)

While Tesla has struggled to deliver on the hype of its self-driving promises, Einride has been quietly developing a Level 4 self-driving electric truck. Now, that quiet effort is paying off. For the first time, the company is operating a fully autonomous, heavy-duty EV on public roads in Europe.

The autonomous ag equipment experts behind the GUSS robotic sprayers have been developing their AI tech as part of a JV with John Deere for years — and now, that marriage is official. John Deere has acquired 100% of GUSS, and has big plans to pick up that tech and run with it like a … well, you know.

Led by a team of ex-Waymo engineers, Bedrock Robotics is developing a new generation of autonomous heavy equipment equipment operators who, they hope, will be able to work 24 hours a day, seven days a week, without human intervention.

Construction and mining giant Caterpillar has reached a major milestone for its autonomous haulage system (AHS), reaching one million tons (!) of aggregate hauled by the company’s massive self-driving trucks.

Advanced air mobility developer Wisk Aero wasted no time during the first day of the Paris Air Show, announcing two separate deals to establish autonomous air taxi operations in two different regions. Those agreements include Memoranda of Understanding with partners in Miami in the US, and the City of Kaga, Ishikawa, in Japan.

Powered by tech giant Huawei 5G-Advanced network, a fleet of over 100 Huaneng Ruichi all-electric autonomous haul trucks and heavy equipment assets have been deployed at the Yimin open-pit mine in Inner Mongolia.

Automation and warehouse robots have been changing the way we ship and store goods for decades. In a post-Altman/OpenAI world, though, we get to call that kind of autonomous operation “AI” and slap a multimillion dollar valuation on it – which is exactly what Ati Motors did.

At CES2025, the impressively built-out John Deere exhibit was all about automation. Autonomous job sites, autonomous farms … but it was this new, battery electric, autonomous lawn mowing robot that stole the show.

Developed by Indian company Farmrobo Technologies, the iMog is a fully autonomous, multipurpose electric farm tractor designed to be a cost-effective solution to support small-scale farming operations and hobby farms.