“Fortunately with an autonomous system there's no logistical overhead”
It might be too early to tell.
Those telehandlers and skidsteers are almost always rentals, so they get called off and picked up at the site. Moving heavy machinery is much more difficult than moving people, and all of your equipment is unique so it’s glued to that job site until it’s complete. Owning your own equipment presents its own set of challenges - you have to store it when it isn’t being utilized, keep excess capacity in case it becomes unavailable, fix/repair on your own, etc. All of the costs in the current installer model, while perhaps higher, are tightly coupled with the cash flows from the job portfolio. This might decouple the cash going out from the cash coming in, to say nothing of the fixed costs of having having hardware/software engineers on staff.
I really want this to succeed so please keep in mind this is just food for thought.
Yes! Sorry I explained poorly above, I meant there isn't additional logistical overhead involved in stopping operations for a day for robots, whereas there's tons when workers are involved.
You're dead on with regards to the logistics involved in operating this equipment on site, we'll absolutely be facing each of the challenges you mentioned.
> I meant there isn't additional logistical overhead involved in stopping operations for a day for robots, whereas there's tons when workers are involved.
Time value of money. There is a lot of capital tied up in those machines. If they stop for a day there is no income from that capital.
It might be too early to tell.
Those telehandlers and skidsteers are almost always rentals, so they get called off and picked up at the site. Moving heavy machinery is much more difficult than moving people, and all of your equipment is unique so it’s glued to that job site until it’s complete. Owning your own equipment presents its own set of challenges - you have to store it when it isn’t being utilized, keep excess capacity in case it becomes unavailable, fix/repair on your own, etc. All of the costs in the current installer model, while perhaps higher, are tightly coupled with the cash flows from the job portfolio. This might decouple the cash going out from the cash coming in, to say nothing of the fixed costs of having having hardware/software engineers on staff.
I really want this to succeed so please keep in mind this is just food for thought.