Bedrock Robotics’ first operator-free excavator deployments take off

Bedrock is automating earth-moving equipment to improve site safety and fill skilled labor shortages. | Credit: Bedrock Robotics

Bedrock Robotics Inc. has deployed fully autonomous, retrofitted heavy excavators onto active infrastructure projects in Texas and Nevada. These AI-driven heavy equipment projects directly address the construction industry’s severe labor shortages, safety hazards, and cost overruns.

As the U.S. faces a looming labor crisis—with over 40% of the construction workforce expected to retire within five years—Bedrock said its technology comes at a pivotal moment for national infrastructure ambitions. Backed by $350 million in venture capital and led by former Waymo autonomy veterans, the startup’s plug-and-play retrofit system turns complex, high-risk earthwork into software-driven operations.

The San Francisco-based company asserted that it is helping the physical economy transition from digital AI concepts to self-orchestrating machine fleets on live job sites.

The first few projects for Bedrock Robotics include a water treatment facility in partnership with Sundt Construction in Nevada, a multi-million cubic yard earthwork site with Champion Site Prep in Texas, and a 1.2 million cubic yard civil sitework project with Zachry Construction Corp.

Bedrock claimed that these deployments mark a significant shift, as AI increasingly performs work of genuine economic value in the physical world. It’s also a critical step toward something larger: fleets that can self-orchestrate across machine types to plan, share, and execute jobs on a construction site at a pace and scale the industry has never seen.

What is the scope of the current projects? “Right now, we’re doing a lot of clearing earth, like the early earthwork, cut and fill operations, the prep work for foundations, the prep work for the big sort of like rough cuts ahead of more detailed work,” Kevin Peterson , chief technology officer of Bedrock Robotics, told The Robot Report .

While Bedrock’s design will eventually enable retrofits of existing late-model excavators in the future, right now, the company is only deploying new equipment that has been outfitted and tested at its headquarters. Peterson said he expects that by the end of the year, the company will be running on partner equipment.

Editor’s note: Physical AI and field robotics will be among the session track topics at RoboBusiness 2026, which will be on Oct. 20 and 21 in Santa Clara, Calif. Register now to attend.