AUTONOMOUS
AUTONOMOUS MOWERS MOWERS on a mower. Langton said one of his managers convinced him that the crews needed 36-inch stand-on mowers on the autonomous crew trailer,“ just in case.” In doing so, the crews would choose to cut the grass manually instead of using the robot.“ If you give them a machine to ride or stand on, they will cut grass without the robots, because mowing grass is easier than pulling weeds.”
That’ s why Langton continues to remind his crews that they will work a little bit harder than if they worked at a competitor that does not use autonomous mowers.“ But it will be more rewarding,” he said.“ And you will make more money because there’ s more profit in the account now. The money’ s there with automation to pay them more.” He said it’ s a mindset shift.
Autonomy is helping change landscaping work from a job into a career, said Langton.
Is it a big technological leap?
Beyond the change in on-site duties – less time operating a mower and more trimming and weeding – how does autonomy change landscaping work? And is it all about tech skills?
“ A common misconception is that autonomous mowing is difficult and it takes someone who is tech savvy to run and manage it,” said Colin Busse, autonomous operations director for RC Mowers.“ It’ s more important to have an openness to doing things differently because it’ s an entirely new workflow. You pull in and you turn the mowers on. You let them boot up. You deploy the mowers.
What about people?
The promotional story behind autonomous mowers has been that these machines replace human workers. That doesn’ t mean landscapers are firing people when they buy a Greenzie-equipped Wright Stander. It means these mowers are doing the work of people landscapers can’ t hire consistently. But that’ s only a small part of the story.
“ It bugs me that the manufacturers are turning it into that, because they just don’ t know how to sell autonomy,” said Langton.“ This actually is a value add for landscape business owners.” Autonomous mowers will change several things about the way landscape businesses hire, manage, promote and grow work crews.
“ I’ m finding I have to pay my robotics people more money,” said Langton.“ Usually only $ 2 to $ 3 an hour more for the people doing the landscaping work.” With the autonomous vehicles cutting the grass, the worker on site does the trimming, edging, weed pulling and beautification work that the robots can’ t do. But that’ s also more difficult, manually, than sitting or standing
Mowers like the autonomous RC change the workflow for landscape service crews.
12 OPE + July 2025 www. OPE-Plus. com