Photo: Honda
When you focus primarily on their automotive operations, it's easy to forget just how many places Honda's engineers have their sights set on at any given moment. From quality motorcycles to fast, efficient business jets, there's seldom a discipline involving wheels and engines that Honda hasn't dipped their toes into at one point or another. But an all-electric riding lawn mower? That seems like something somewhat beneath the standing of the team that brought us VTEC and the HondaJet.
That is until you lower your preconceived biases and take a look at the Honda Autonomous Work Mower, or AWM for short. This battery-powered with a degree of autonomous locomotion integrated into its systems is about to make the jobs of day laborers and landscapers alike a little bit more tolerable thanks to its state-of-the-art self-driving software. With more capability than any riding mower designed before it, Honda is seeking a pilot program in search of landscapers and tradesmen/ tradeswomen women interested in trialing their new machine and to report their feedback to Honda for further fine-tuning and systems integration.
At the end of this trial period, Honda intends to bring the AWM to full-scale production in anticipation of very happy and satisfied trial members. People whom Honda believes will be nothing but pleased with how much easier their new piece of kit makes their otherwise labor-intensive and stressful jobs. Innovative and technology-heavy new features like THe AWM's "Teaching" mode, which allows the vehicle to map its surroundings through the input from the driver via LiDAR and radar as they travel around their area of operation, learning the terrain as it does so, are vital components to the AWM's appeal.
Our development of the prototype zero-turn Honda Autonomous Work Mower comes at a time when technology is shaping the future of the landscaping industry," explained Hirokazu Hara, vice president of New Business Development, American Honda Motor Co Inc., as he talked over the finer points of why Honda decided to bring such an interesting and novel machine to market. "To address labor shortages and help support companies' sustainability goals, the Honda AWM aims to provide zero-emission alternatives to gasoline-powered mowers that can reduce operating costs and help accelerate the electrification of landscape maintenance equipment."
In front of a captivated crowd at the 2023 Equip Exposition, Honda stated their case on why the future of the landscaping biz will be focused around high-tech machines that learn their environment just as a human worker would. But with real horsepower to work with, like a 60-inch cutter deck with three 21-inch cutter blades and a top speed of 10 mph in manual mode, Honda seems convinced those who agree to a trial run with the AWM will have nothing but polite things to say about it. Whether this comes to pass or not remains to be seen.
At the end of this trial period, Honda intends to bring the AWM to full-scale production in anticipation of very happy and satisfied trial members. People whom Honda believes will be nothing but pleased with how much easier their new piece of kit makes their otherwise labor-intensive and stressful jobs. Innovative and technology-heavy new features like THe AWM's "Teaching" mode, which allows the vehicle to map its surroundings through the input from the driver via LiDAR and radar as they travel around their area of operation, learning the terrain as it does so, are vital components to the AWM's appeal.
Our development of the prototype zero-turn Honda Autonomous Work Mower comes at a time when technology is shaping the future of the landscaping industry," explained Hirokazu Hara, vice president of New Business Development, American Honda Motor Co Inc., as he talked over the finer points of why Honda decided to bring such an interesting and novel machine to market. "To address labor shortages and help support companies' sustainability goals, the Honda AWM aims to provide zero-emission alternatives to gasoline-powered mowers that can reduce operating costs and help accelerate the electrification of landscape maintenance equipment."
In front of a captivated crowd at the 2023 Equip Exposition, Honda stated their case on why the future of the landscaping biz will be focused around high-tech machines that learn their environment just as a human worker would. But with real horsepower to work with, like a 60-inch cutter deck with three 21-inch cutter blades and a top speed of 10 mph in manual mode, Honda seems convinced those who agree to a trial run with the AWM will have nothing but polite things to say about it. Whether this comes to pass or not remains to be seen.
Google News