Automation is coming for the jobs of construction equipment operators as tech startup AIM Intelligent Machines, which retrofits heavy construction equipment to operate autonomously, has raised $50 million to expand its operations. AIM plans to use the funds to grow its 40-headcount workforce and expand to a new Washington State facility. The company’s CEO, Adam Sadilek, is a veteran of self-driving car company Waymo. The company attaches the same sensors that power many self-driving cars to machinery like bulldozers and excavators, which build a real-time, three-dimensional map of the equipment’s surroundings. An edge compute system then takes over the controls to dig, haul, plow, fill, and level the ground without a human in the driver’s seat.
