AUTONOMOUS MOWERS AUTONOMOUS MOWERS

“ It ' s not new anymore. It ' s not‘ the future.’ We ' re well past the future.”

By Glenn Hansen

hen I talk with Tim Kubista, he likes to remind me of the technology adoption curve. Kubista is VP of sales and marketing for RC Mowers, autonomous mower manufacturer based near Green Bay, Wis. RC’ s autonomous and remote-controlled mowers aren’ t brand new, nor are they mainstream. Early Adopters purchase and use these machines; we’ re not to the Early Majority phase yet. That’ s true of autonomous and robotic mowers from manufacturers such as Wright, Segway, Husqvarna, Echo and others.

Autonomous mowers are not the future. They are the present. So this is not another story about if you should consider buying one for your landscape business or selling them more actively in your dealership. I talked with early adopters – users and manufacturers – about the in-use reality of autonomous mowers. How does a business implement autonomy? How do these mowers change a business? What happens with personnel after autonomous implementation? Is this just for tech experts?

Implementation for Landscapers

Okay, I said this story wasn’ t going to cover the“ if” of autonomous mowers. There is one“ if” query. A landscape business owner needs to do some math to see if a $ 50,000 autonomous mower is a fiscally smart move.

“ I just met with a landscaper this week to talk about this question,” said Joe Langton, owner of Automated Outdoor Solutions, an Illinois-based company that sells, services and sets up robotic mowers.“ I asked him,‘ Andrew, how much money do you pay your guys an hour? How many people are on a crew? How many hours per week?’”

Then Langton asked him how much his truck cost. And the trailer. And the equipment. And more questions about his operation and weekly expenses. Langton has been in landscaping and autonomous solutions for years.“ I helped him identify that his cost per acre to mow is about $ 58 an acre,” said Langton.“ That’ s where you start with autonomous mowers. You have to calculate cost per acre to mow. Once they know that, they can look at any piece of automation, whether it’ s a leave-on-site robot or one they put on a trailer and move from job to job. It’ s easy then to figure out what the cost per acre is on the robotic equipment.”

“ I told Andrew if he did automation, instead of having a three-person crew, he’ ll have a two-person crew. That in itself brought his cost per acre down to $ 48 an acre.” Langton makes clear that autonomous mowers are

8 OPE + July 2025 www. OPE-Plus. com