California-based autonomous haulage system (AHS) developer Pronto has teamed with South American mining and forestry equipment sales group Raico SA to scale autonomy for both sectors in Chile.
Under the agreement, Raico will exclusively provide sales, distribution, installation and aftermarket support services for the Pronto AHS and Pollen Mobile private LTE/5G network technologies in Chile. The partnership will initially be focused on deploying Pronto’s OEM-agnostic AHS on Bell articulated dump trucks, but will then expand to supporting other OEMs and applications.
“It’s not a coincidence that our first international partnership is in Chile, a critical supplier of minerals such as lithium, which like autonomous technology will be essential to the world’s transition to a carbon-neutral economy,” said Pronto CEO Anthony Levandowski.
“The greenest mining is autonomous mining. We’re looking forward to bringing the environmental, cost, productivity and safety benefits of our Autonomous Haulage System to mining, quarrying and forestry operations of all sizes in Chile.”
Pronto’s AI-powered, software-centric solution is engineered to be deployed in a fraction of the time and at a fraction of the cost of competitive technologies, bringing autonomy within reach for operations and equipment of all sizes. The company’s AHS operates fully autonomously (Level 4), enabling customers to overcome labor shortages, maximize equipment utilization, optimize efficiency and minimize environmental impacts while improving safety.
“Autonomy is going to be necessary to support the world’s growing demand for critical resources such as lithium and cellulose, and it is the future for most operations in Chile,” said Raico Commercial Manager Cristóbal Alexandroff.
“It is safe, reliable, environmentally friendly, and will help advance the productivity and technical capabilities of critical Chilean industries.”