LAKE BRIDGEPORT, Texas: #AHS--Pronto.ai, Inc. (Pronto) today announced a significant milestone in the digitization of the aggregates industry: Heidelberg Materials, one of the world's largest integrated manufacturers of building materials and solutions, has autonomously hauled over two million tons of limestone at its Lake Bridgeport quarry in Texas.

Following a successful pilot project at its Bridgeport site, Heidelberg Materials has equipped a mixed fleet of Caterpillar and Komatsu haul trucks with Pronto’s Autonomous Haulage System (AHS). Leveraging an AI-first approach to autonomous technology, the site safely transported an amount of material equivalent to the weight of around 20,000 fully loaded freight train cars in under eight months. This achievement establishes a new commercial standard for operational velocity and flexibility in quarry automation.

The Lake Bridgeport fleet represents a technological breakthrough for the industry: the seamless simultaneous operation of disparate equipment brands on a single autonomous haulage system. The fleet includes Caterpillar 775G rigid frame trucks alongside Komatsu HD605-8 and next-generation Komatsu HD605-10 trucks.

"True scalability in the aggregates industry requires the ability to automate the iron you already own," said Anthony Levandowski, CEO of Pronto. "By successfully running a mixed fleet of Cat and Komatsu trucks on Pronto AHS, we have proven that autonomy is no longer a 'one-brand' luxury. We have unlocked the ability for Heidelberg Materials to optimize their fleet strategy independent of their AHS platform."

“We are excited to mark this important milestone at our Lake Bridgeport quarry. It showcases our strong commitment to scaling innovative solutions that drive operational excellence at Heidelberg Materials,” said Scott Tipping, Global Director Competence Center Aggregates & Asphalt. “Our partnership with Pronto not only contributes to enhancing efficiency and safety at our sites, but it also helps us address recruiting challenges while further accelerating our sustainability efforts. Building on this achievement, we will continue to expand autonomous haulage to more than a dozen sites in North America, Europe, and APAC, further advancing the digitization of the building materials industry.”

The Lake Bridgeport deployment leverages Pronto’s proprietary vision-only based AHS option, which utilizes cameras and AI to navigate dynamic quarry environments without the need for lidar, radar, or rigid pre-mapping.

Key operational highlights include:

• Dynamic Zone Management: The trucks autonomously adapt to changing loading and dumping points without engineering intervention.

• Safety Redundancy: A comprehensive safety system utilizing lightweight "Rover" transponders ensures safe coordination between autonomous haulers and manned vehicles and equipment.

• Sustainability: The optimized driving patterns of the autonomous fleet are reducing fuel consumption and extending tire life, directly contributing to Heidelberg Materials’ sustainability commitments.

The success at Lake Bridgeport serves as the operational foundation for the global agreement announced by the companies in February 2025. With the technology validated at production scale, Heidelberg Materials and Pronto are proceeding with the rollout of Pronto AHS to over 100 trucks across operations worldwide.

About Pronto

Pronto is Autonomy Simplified. Founded by the Silicon Valley pioneers who have been at the forefront of the most important advances in autonomous vehicles and robotics for the last two decades, Pronto AHS is designed to be the simplest, fastest to deploy, easiest to use, and most cost-effective solution in the mining and quarrying markets. Learn more about Pronto at www.pronto.ai.

Fonte: Business Wire