SoftBank Group has committed $225 million to Autonomous Solutions, Inc. (ASI), a Utah-based developer of autonomous work vehicles. Alongside this capital injection, the two organizations have established a joint venture focused on deploying self-driving equipment for major infrastructure undertakings spanning road construction, rail projects and airport development.
The newly formed partnership will concentrate on automating civil construction operations and material handling tasks at job sites. Neither the venture's funding allocation, ownership structure, nor its official name have been made public.
ASI will deploy the $225 million investment to expand its market presence throughout the construction sector. The company's flagship offering, Mobius, is a software platform designed to operate autonomous fleets comprising equipment from multiple manufacturers, enabling construction firms to automate their existing mixed-brand machinery without replacement.
Together, we offer automated OEM-agnostic heavy equipment solutions that let customers deploy mixed fleets of haul trucks, dozers, loaders, compactors, and more
Mel Torrie, ASI's chief executive
Torrie outlined the venture's target markets, naming road builders, airport operators, railway developers and waste management facilities as priority customers. He emphasized that the autonomous systems can execute diverse tasks ranging from earthmoving and material transport to vertical construction.
Founded in 2000 by researchers commercializing technology from Utah State University, ASI maintains its headquarters in Mendon, Utah, where it operates a testing facility spanning more than 80 hectares. The company also maintains offices in Salt Lake City, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Longmont, Colorado. Its autonomous solutions currently serve applications in agriculture, construction, logistics and landscape management.
This investment reflects SoftBank's sustained interest in construction robotics. In August, the conglomerate led a $200 million funding round for Gravis Robotics, a Swiss startup specializing in autonomous software for excavators.
Source: The Next Web
