INTERVIEW
should you choose us? Because we are premium, we are more expensive in many cases. We need to justify that with basically the same things that you said before on handheld products— that is reliability, durability, but also aftermarket support and the knowledge we have.
OPE +: My next-door neighbor bought a competitor robot online, had it shipped to his house. He’ s a smart guy. But he had a hell of a time with setup. I think a direct-to-consumer model with robots could give them a bad reputation if setup is challenging. Rangert: It puts a lot of demand on the development team, actually, to make sure that we have the customer in front of us when we develop the installation and everything. Simmons: But the technology is advancing so fast right now. We’ re moving from boundary wire technology to using reference stations and satellite RTK. That was a big leap. And now we’ re looking at multiple leaps forward from vision systems, where we’ re able to identify if there’ s everything from an animal to a ball to whatever; and then you incorporate AI into that. Then you really get to a point where it’ s just dropping them off; so the technology is going so fast. I think the shift in the next couple of years is going to take a lot of those unknowns and teething issues of new technology. It’ s going to take them completely away. So I think there are big leaps right around the corner in autonomous mowing technology.
OPE +: What are you hearing from people at Equip Expo? Is there anything surprising that you’ re hearing from event attendees about their requests, their desires, their input? Rangert: What most people say is they love the brand. They want consistency now. I think we need to provide that consistency in the way we develop things, the way we approach our customers, the way we approach our channel partners, and the way we pay attention to them. Simmons: And they’ re starting to see it. I think that’ s been the most encouraging thing. Talking to our customers and channel partners just a couple years ago versus where we are today, I’ m hearing more and more people say just what you mentioned there. We’ re making some good moves. And it’ s not just about new products. I think we’ re starting to do a much better job on the support, the service, the supply chain challenges that we’ ve had in the recent past. And we’ re starting to hear that from our customers, from our channel partners. So the biggest request I’ m hearing is“ Keep it up.”
26 OPE + December 2025 www. OPE-Plus. com