Waymo alumni launch driverless excavators on construction sites in Texas and Nevada

Bedrock Robotics, a San Francisco startup created in 2024 by ex-Waymo staff, announced that its autonomous AI platform is now operating driverless excavators on three commercial construction sites in Texas and Nevada, one of which serves a water-treatment facility. The technology retrofits existing excavators with sensors and edge-computing units, enabling them to perceive their environment, plan movements and execute tasks set by a site manager without a human operator.

The initiative targets chronic labor shortages—more than 40 % of the workforce is projected to retire by 2031—and the industry's high fatality rate. Experts stress that the current rollout is a limited test and that scaling to other equipment such as bulldozers, dump trucks and loaders will be technically demanding and costly for contractors operating on thin margins. Bedrock, valued at $1.75 billion, compares its growth trajectory to Waymo’s early city-block trials and views the physical economy as the next frontier for machine-learning. Competitors like Built Robotics, Caterpillar and AIM Intelligent Machines are also pursuing autonomous heavy equipment.