Episode 320 | America Can’t Build Without Autonomous Construction Equipment

Kevin Peterson, Co-Founder & CTO, Bedrock Robotics joined Grayson Brulte on The Road to Autonomy podcast to discuss the growing labor shortage in the construction industry and how Bedrock is developing autonomous construction equipment to help builders keep building.

America’s construction industry is facing a crisis with a shortage of 500,000 workers delaying projects by an average of two months and costing $2.7 billion annually. Bedrock is looking to solve that problem as they are building autonomous construction equipment using machine learning techniques such as imitation learning and reinforcement learning to teach machines how to dig, move, and adapt in real-world job sites.

Throughout the conversation, Grayson and Kevin explore the economic, technical, and operational challenges facing the construction sector, from power constraints slowing down data center builds to safety risks on chaotic job sites and how autonomy can solve these growing issues. 

Episode Chapters

0:00 From Cars and Trucks to Construction 

3:16 Automating Construction Equipment 

9:51 OEM Partnerships 

10:49 Construction Partners 

12:55 Data

16:56 Deploying Autonomous Construction Equipment 

24:00 Challenges 

26:15 Job Creation 

28:09 Human to Machine Ratio

30:28 Bedrock OS

33:40 Maps

34:29 Construction TAM

Recorded on Thursday, July 24, 2025

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