This ex-Googler is bringing self-driving excavators to construction sites

by Dramelin 11:00 PM 0 comments

Noah Ready-Campbell`s first job out of college was at Google.
It was 2010, the year the company touted its plan -- or then, what seemed like a far-fetched dream -- to build self-driving cars.
"They announced it and everyone looked at each other and we were like, why are we even talking about this," Ready-Campbell, who`s now 29, told CNBC.
"There`s no way it`s going to work.
" Seven years later, the technology is working.
In fact, it`s so far along that in California more than 40 companies have licenses to test autonomous vehicles, with the trucking industry not far behind.
Ready-Campbell, whose dad was a general contractor, is getting in on the action and taking advantage of the dramatic advances in automation to go after construction.
For the past two years, he`s been developing software and sensors that can turn off-the-shelf excavators into robots that can dig holes with precision for hours without a break.
From a small dirt field in a sparsely populated part of San Francisco, Ready-Campbell`s 10-person start-up, Built Robotics, has been stealthily operating a retrofitted skid steer, directing it via a computer program to move around dirt.