Komatsu Ltd., the world's second-biggest maker of construction equipment, has begun sales of automated bulldozers in the United States, the home turf of bigger rival Caterpillar Inc., in a bid to keep pace with global competitors.
The firm plans to sell as many as 500 of the new dozers, weighing 15 metric tons each, in the U.S. in three years, Tetsuji Ohashi, president of Tokyo-based Komatsu, said Friday. These "ICT intensive" bulldozers will eventually be driverless, he said.
Komatsu, which also designed the mining industry's first driverless trucks, started selling the automated bulldozers in the U.S. last month and plans to phase out its standard operator-controlled models.
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