Forterra, an American self-driving car manufacturer, said today that more than 100 self-driving ATVs have been deployed to conflict zones in Ukraine over the past nine months. The company believes this is the largest deployment of a combat autonomous ground vehicle by any U.S. defense technology company.
“I believe this is true of every defense technology ever developed. You won’t know until you face the realities of combat,” Scott Sanders, Forterra’s chief growth officer and a former U.S. Marine Corps officer, told TechCrunch.
The mission, funded by U.S. defense dollars, is part of an effort to transform the U.S. military by supporting Ukraine’s resistance to Russian invaders. Although aerial drones have garnered much attention in combat, dynamics such as widespread exclusion zones where surveillance from above can lead to fatalities have led Ukrainian strategists to pursue ground-based autonomy.
“There’s no place to hide,” explained Sergeant Corey Wilkens, who leads the Autonomous Vehicle and Tactical Development Program for the U.S. Army. “It makes them very vulnerable to being attacked by (first-person view drones), other types of drones that drop ammunition, artillery, mortars, etc.”
Ukraine is already building its own unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) to move supplies and munitions or evacuate wounded soldiers, but they are typically battery-powered and can carry up to 250 kilograms, according to a soldier in the Ukrainian army who has used the vehicles, who TechCrunch would not identify for security reasons.
Based on the Polaris ATV and equipped with custom sensors and computing stacks, Forterra’s Lancer vehicle is gas-powered and can carry 750 kg of cargo, making it more versatile and useful. “The bottom line is that these UGVs for logistics and defense maintenance are the most important UGVs in Ukraine,” the soldier said. “It’s fantastic. We can’t wait to get more.”
They didn’t feel that way at first. The Ukrainian military had mixed experience with Western contractors introducing new technologies into combat, and initially felt that Forterra’s products were too suited to the advanced requirements of the U.S. military. Modifying the vehicle to suit the situation, especially by adding a Starlink satellite internet antenna, was a huge added value.
Since arriving in Ukraine last October, the vehicle has traveled more than 2,500 miles on more than 1,100 missions, carrying a total weight of 777,440 pounds and evacuating 52 casualties. Some lost their lives in battle. This is especially true if they are trapped in deep mud or other terrain where Russian forces can target them at their leisure.
Forterra learned some useful lessons, including electronic warfare, how to update software from afar, how to maneuver in difficult conditions, and how to keep vehicles from breaking down. Having raised more than $500 million in venture funding from funds such as XYZ Venture Cpaital and Moore Strategic Partners, the company is now better positioned to compete for lucrative national security contracts.
They also saw the limits of autonomy. Currently, Ukrainian soldiers primarily operate vehicles remotely in combat zones. That’s partly because they’re too valuable to lose, and partly because autonomous vehicles aren’t yet ready for the realities of war.
For example, a vehicle can autonomously navigate a variety of terrains, but it is not capable of identifying and responding appropriately to unexpected enemies. “We really need to be able to respond in real time to enemy threats, and while we are in front of the enemy, autonomy does not yet know what to do,” the Ukrainian soldier explained.
Forterra, which began developing self-driving cars 20 years ago, is researching ways to combine the various algorithms that have made self-driving cars possible with the latest generative AI software that allows machines to respond in a generalized way to their surroundings. As with other autonomous systems, one of the main obstacles is collecting the right data.
“There are a lot of things that need to be done that aren’t available in an open source model because humans can’t do them, like figuring out how to navigate a minefield or how to operate a weapons system,” Sanders told TechCrunch. “You should be able to turn the dial and things that are closer to a classic robotics approach and leverage AI where you need it.”
Competitors in the space are solving similar problems, such as Scout AI, which raised $100 million earlier this year to train basic models and develop a family of military autonomous platforms that include UGVs. Other startups, such as Field AI and Overland AI, are also testing UGVs with the U.S. military.
Despite the limitations of UGVs, U.S. military experts are convinced that now is the time to invest in these tools. “Autonomy on the ground is now achievable and we have seen it,” Wilkens said.
Scott Philips, Forterra’s Chief Innovation Officer, visited a Ukrainian unit’s operations center to see the vehicle in action first-hand, and earned the respect of the unit on a visit to a Russian strike range.
“What surprised me the most was seeing exactly where the seams were: which steps were still manual, which required manually re-entering or revalidating data, and where teams had already found ways to automate or speed up tasks,” Philips told TechCrunch. “This is the kind of real-world truth you can’t get from a slide deck, because it shows you exactly where better tools can reduce the burden on the people doing this work in real time.”
One challenge raised by Ukrainians is making it cheaper. Forterra’s Lancers are less expensive than their category peers because they rely on Polaris’ commercial supply chain for the vehicles themselves, but they are still too valuable to be deployed as freely as UAVs.
“Attrition is just a fact of this battlefield. At this point, we’ve lost a few men and we’ve been wounded. We need more of it, so we need it cheaper,” a Ukrainian soldier told TechCrunch.
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