Automation startup company Bedrock Robotics is breaking into the construction industry with $270 million in new investments, topping off its $1.75 billion dollar valuation.
Bedrock’s headline product is an artificial intelligence-powered program and corresponding hardware, dubbed the Bedrock Operator, designed to be retrofitted onto excavators and other construction equipment, making them autonomous.
Heading up Bedrock’s new capital injection is CapitalG, the investment arm of Alphabet, the parent company of Google and the Valor Atreides AI Fund. Already among Bedrock’s investors is 8VC, an arm of Nvidia, the company responsible for the advanced computer chips powering AI development. 8VC was a part of an $80 million investment in Bedrock last July.
The company was co-founded two years ago by Boris Sofman, who is CEO and previously worked for Waymo, the company whose driverless “robotaxis” have become frequent sights on San Francisco streets. Sofman headed the company’s scuttled driverless trucking program and its successful effort to get their vehicles permitted on freeways.
Two other members of Bedrock’s founding team also formerly worked for Waymo: CTO Kevin Peterson and Vice President of Engineering Ajay Gummalla. Co-founder Tom Eliaz, and also vice president of engineering, worked for Segment, an AI power data collection company.
Unlike Waymo’s operations, Bedrock’s venture has not been stifled by the stringent regulations controlling what can and cannot be operated on public streets where pedestrians and other drivers are present.
Bedrock claims that their product will not eliminate human labor but merely augment it. Recent trends show the construction industry with massive deficits of needed workers. The company points to these numbers as a reason to utilize their automation on the jobsite. Doing so would also allow work to be conducted 24 hours a day, they say, aiding in the construction of in-demand infrastructure such as data centers.
Bedrock conducted initial tests at its own sites in Arizona, Texas and Arkansas. The technology has since moved onto several client sites in the same three states plus California, albeit under human supervision. The construction firms participating in the next stage of Bedrock’s testing are Sundt Construction, Zachry Construction Corporation, Champion Site Prep Inc. and Capitol Aggregates Inc. Champion’s chief executive has reported positive results in efficiency with the use of Bedrock’s automation.
The Bedrock Operator uses lidar laser technology to give its AI high-definition 3D imagery of its surroundings, enabling it to dig out precise quantities of dirt and adapt to obstructions. Also included on the same roof-mounted rig are eight cameras allowing for a 360-degree view of the work area. The computer that operates the excavator is located within the cab of the vehicle.
For the time being, the startup lacks any competition from established companies. Although other new AI-powered companies are experimenting with automated dump trucks and mining equipment, those startups and prominent legacy construction equipment manufacturers like
Caterpillar and John Deere have not dabbled in automating their excavators. Because Bedrock outfits existing machinery rather than building it from scratch, the company has the benefit of not spending capital on developing large machinery.
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