Today, we announced at UP.Partners’ UP.Summit event that Florida-based Tomahawk Construction will become the first customer to deploy our autonomous capabilities on an active job site. Tomahawk Construction’s articulated dump trucks will be able to use autonomous functions to move material to build a residential community in Naples, FL starting in December. In addition, Teleo announced deals with eight new construction customers, including Florida-based Ajax Paving Industries of FL, LLC. Collectively, our new customers have placed orders for 42 machines. We also announced the addition of Ozark Laser, Murphy Tractor and Position Partners to our global dealer partner network, establishing our dealer footprint across seven states in the American Midwest, Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia.
“Construction companies are facing historic labor shortages and incurring significant costs as their machines sit idle,” said Vinay Shet, our Co-founder and CEO. “We are seeing an unprecedented number of customer orders which demonstrates Teleo’s powerful value proposition. Our technology breathes new life into our customers’ machines, addresses their labor shortages, and makes the operators’ role safer and more comfortable.”
Customer Launch of Autonomous Capabilities
The initial autonomous capability being launched is tramming, or autonomous hauling materials from one point to another. Tomahawk Construction will use its Teleo-equipped articulated dump trucks for autonomous tramming across a Naples, Florida job site where they will move material to build a residential community. The autonomous feature introduction will begin on three machines and roll out to 12 machines over the course of a few months. Operators driving dump trucks spend the majority of their time tramming from one point to another. By automating the tramming portion, one operator can run multiple machines simultaneously, multiplying their productivity. The physical dumping of materials will be handled remotely by one operator controlling multiple machines from a comfortable command center.
“Teleo’s technology has the potential to completely transform our operations,” said Scott Lyons, Managing Member, Tomahawk Construction. “With Teleo, two of our dump trucks that have been idle will be put back into service to haul dirt across the site autonomously, allowing our remote operators to do more. This will help us to run a more efficient operation.”
To date, we’ve been testing autonomy on two John Deere 333G Compact Track Loader skid steers at our Pleasanton, CA proving grounds, and on a Komatsu WA500 wheel loader moving dirt at the Ouluzone race track property in Finland, which is affiliated with the University of Oulu.
New Customers and Unprecedented Orders
Teleo’s eight new customers will deploy the 42 new Teleo enabled machines on 17 job sites across eight U.S. states and Europe. We’ll retrofit machines from brands such as Caterpillar, Komatsu, John Deere, and Volvo for remote and autonomous operations and these machines will range in model year from 2005 – 2022. We plan to have 20 machines on customer sites by the end of this year.
Ajax Paving Industries of FL, LLC will outfit two new Caterpillar wheel loaders with Teleo’s technology. These loaders will be stationed at two of the company’s asphalt manufacturing plants to load the bins at the plant. The plants are roughly 80 miles apart, marking the first time one operator will work across two job sites.
“The asphalt industry operates on tight schedules,” said Andy DeCraene, Vice President, Ajax Paving. “When our customers require asphalt, we must deliver promptly, making it imperative for our machines and operators to remain available. Allowing one operator to control machines at multiple sites is a significant advantage. If an operator is unavailable at one site, another can operate the machine remotely. This is a genuine game changer for our business.”
Ajax Paving’s collaboration with Teleo was facilitated by one of our dealers, Dobbs Positioning Solutions, a division of Dobbs Equipment that covers Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Alabama. Ajax Paving is the first company to introduce remote operation technology from among approximately 3,500 asphalt manufacturing plants across the United States.
Breaking Boundaries with Supervised Autonomous Operations
Teleo Supervised Autonomy, which enables remote and supervised-autonomous operations of any make and model of heavy construction equipment, is being demonstrated at the UP.Summit, an event put on by Teleo investor UP.Partners from Oct. 4-6, 2023 in Dallas, TX. Attendees will witness machines operating at both Teleo’s Pleasanton, CA proving ground and the Ouluzone race track worksite in Finland. Dallas-to-Finland is the world’s longest supervised autonomous operation in history.
This event also marks the first time that remote operators, working from the comfort of a control center, can operate up to three Teleo-equipped machines, setting a new standard for remote capabilities and autonomous operations.
Expanded Dealer Partner Network, From America’s Heartland to Australia
We launched our global dealer partner network earlier in 2023 and are further expanding our list to include Ozark Laser, Murphy Tractor, and Position Partners.
Ozark Laser
Based in Springfield, MO, Ozark Laser offers leading edge technology to increase productivity, efficiency and safety on heavy construction projects. Ozark Laser will support our customers across Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
Murphy Tractor
Murphy Tractor is among the five largest John Deere North American construction equipment dealer organizations. Headquartered in Park City, KS, Murphy Tractor has locations throughout the states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Ohio. Each location has a full complement of service technicians, field service capabilities, equipment and parts inventories provided by John Deere, Wirtgen, Kleemann, Hamm, Vogele, Topcon, and now Teleo. As one of John Deere’s largest North American construction equipment dealers, Murphy Tractor is committed to being the product and technology solution provider of choice by customers in the markets that use the products it represents.
Position Partners
Position Partners is a premier provider of intelligent positioning solutions which sources and supports technology across the civil, building, mining, and geospatial sectors. The dealer agreement with Position Partners, which was announced in September, marks Teleo’s entry into Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia. With decades of experience fitting advanced machine control technology to every make and model of earthmoving equipment, Position Partners has partnered with Teleo to provide our advanced automation and remote-operated solutions to customers. The Australian market is known for its early adoption of emerging technology and Position Partners believes that automating mixed fleets of heavy equipment represents the next frontier of productivity gains on civil construction and infrastructure projects.
A New Board Member
With an eye toward continued global expansion and greater adoption of our autonomous technologies, we’ve has added noted technology leader and private equity executive Roger Fradin to its board of directors. Fradin is an experienced board member. Currently he serves as Chairman of the Finance Committee at L3Harris, a $20 billion global defense contractor; Chairman of Resideo, a $7 billion public company; Founder, Chairman and CEO of Juniper Industrial Holdings, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that completed a highly successful merger with Janus International, the leading supplier and partner of choice for the self storage industry; a board member of Vertiv, the $10 billion technology supplier to the data center industry and was part of a SPAC with Goldman Sachs; and an Operating Executive with The Carlyle Group. Fradin was previously the Vice Chairman of Honeywell.
About Teleo
Teleo is revolutionizing the construction and material moving industry by retrofitting traditional heavy equipment with autonomous and remote-operated technology to create supervised autonomous machines. The Teleo Supervised Autonomy technology lets contractors operate existing heavy equipment without an operator in the cab, letting a single person control multiple pieces of equipment from a remote desk. This increases productivity, safety, and operator satisfaction—critical challenges in the construction industry. Teleo is backed by UP.Partners, Trucks Venture Capital, F-Prime Capital, K9 Ventures, YCombinator and a host of industry luminaries.
About UP.Summit
UP.Summit is an annual, invitation-only gathering of the world’s most innovative minds rethinking the future of transportation. Some of the most impactful investors, entrepreneurs, and leaders in policy, defense, transportation and mobility companies gather at the summit each year with the goal of moving people and goods in cleaner, faster, safer, and at lower-cost ways – on the ground, in the air, on the sea, and in space. UP.Summit was founded in 2017 and is jointly organized by UP.Partners, Tom and Steuart Walton, and Ross Perot Jr.