As construction sites across the United States are stagnating due to labor shortages, San Francisco-based startup Bedrock Robotics announced last week it had raised $80 million to deploy self-driving excavators and bulldozers.
The company emerged from stealth with the announcement, and is designed to navigate standard heavy equipment with cameras, sensors and machine learning software to navigate rough terrain and perform drilling operations with minimal surveillance. Advocates say it will help bridge the growing labor gap that slows housing, roads and energy projects across the country.
“All of these macroeconomic pressures drive a huge need to build,” said Boris Sofman, founder and CEO of Bedrock Robotics. Decryption. “At the same time, the construction workforce is short of 500,000 people. 40% of that workforce has retired within 10 years, and there are no new entrants full of growth and growth at the present time.”
About 400,000 construction jobs remain unfilled, according to a June 2025 report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The answer to this shortage is Bedrock Operator, an AI-powered system that converts traditional construction vehicles into autonomous machines. Operators use cameras, sensors and machine learning models to understand the terrain, fully understand the drilling tasks, and provide real-time updates to project managers.
Soffman argued that the combination of rising demand and chronic labor shortages would help automation not only help with revenue but also fight workplace injuries.
“Construction is the most likely industry of all job types,” Sofman said. “So there are massive demand, insufficient labor supply, surge in costs, and simply non-end projects.”
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 199 workers were killed by heavy machinery in 2022 alone. Risks including crushing, cutting and ejecting from taxis are detailed in a 2024 report by industrial injury law firms Talbot, Calmouche and Marcelo.
AI and automation have sparked concerns about job movement and loss of meaning, but Sofman said reality is much more complicated. With not enough workers to enter the field, automation can help keep projects on track and create more jobs by accelerating development.
“Making it more efficient will unlock projects that were funded but were unable to proceed,” he said. “It creates jobs, supports the economy, expands manufacturing, more homes are built, lower prices, better infrastructure, advances in energy projects, all of which creates more jobs.”
In addition to safety, the major advantage of using a robotic construction vehicle is that it can be operated continuously up to 24 hours a day.
The bedrock is not just a driving force for autonomy at construction sites. Safeai builds a robotics excavator with an Exosystem kit for unmanned excavation. New startups like Polymath Robotics are building plug-and-play autonomous stacks for industrial vehicles, and Lumina is developing all-electric self-driving bulldozers.
Meanwhile, heavyweights like Caterpillar and John Deere have deployed self-driving aircraft. Caterpillar’s self-driving hauling trucks have already moved millions of tons to the quarry, and Deere recently announced a fleet of self-driving dump trucks and AI leading tractors and lawn mowers.
This level of competition will lead to a surge in investment, with the global construction robot market estimated to reach $8 billion by 2033.