First came self-driving cars. Now, Waymo veterans are building autonomous construction equipment.

Bedrock retrofits excavators with its autonomous AI system.

Bedrock Robotics Bedrock is deploying autonomous excavators on three commercial construction sites.

Construction automation is advancing.

Researchers say fully autonomous sites are far off.

Bedrock must prove its AI works across machines and saves contractors money.

Self-driving cars have spent years learning the rules of the road.

Now, several Waymo veterans are trying to apply those lessons to a far less predictable environment: construction sites .

San Francisco-based Bedrock Robotics said Monday that excavators equipped with its autonomous AI system are now working without human operators on three commercial sites in Texas and Nevada.

Machines equipped with Bedrock's technology are digging and moving earth on multiple projects, including a water treatment facility.

The appeal of automating construction is clear.

The industry faces labor shortages, high rates of worker deaths, and chronic delays.

More than 40% of the construction workforce is projected to retire by 2031, according to the National Center for Construction Education and Research.

A construction site, however, is less predictable than a factory floor.

Terrain, crews, and tasks can change by the day on construction sites, and it remains unclear whether autonomous machines can reliably adapt to changing conditions reliably and cheaply enough for contractors to embrace them.