{"id":88919,"date":"2025-09-02T18:28:45","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T18:28:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2025\/09\/02\/army-picks-3-startups-to-fast-track-self-driving-squad-vehicle\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:23:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:23:22","slug":"army-picks-3-startups-to-fast-track-self-driving-squad-vehicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/news\/your-army\/2025\/09\/02\/army-picks-3-startups-to-fast-track-self-driving-squad-vehicle\/","title":{"rendered":"Army picks 3 startups to fast-track self-driving squad vehicle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The U.S. Army is turning to commercial startups to fast-track autonomous ground vehicles into combat formations<\/a>, awarding $15.5 million in new contracts to three companies to test self-driving systems on Infantry Squad Vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overland AI, Forterra and Scout AI will \u201crapidly integrate and deliver commercial autonomous mobility into Army formations,\u201d an Army statement published last week states. The companies are required to build prototypes as part of the \u201cUnmanned Systems (UxS) Autonomy\u201d program and get them to soldiers for demonstration and evaluation in May 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are looking forward to seeing how our industry partner\u2019s autonomy solutions perform on vehicles while performing relevant military missions,\u201d Col. Ken Bernier, project manager for Future Battle Platforms within Program Executive Office Ground Combat Systems, said in the statement. \u201cWe remain committed to bringing the best technologies to our warfighters and shaping the future of autonomous mobility for our Army at an unprecedented speed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Army has struggled to clear the hurdle to achieve fully-autonomous vehicles because of the inherent challenges on a modern battlefield not found on predictable roadways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following an off-road autonomy software assessment<\/a> last year, Maj. Gen. Glenn Dean, who was in charge of PEO GCS at the time, told Defense News, \u201cThe good news is we are moving forward in that area. The bad news is industry is nowhere near where people think in terms of off-road autonomy. There\u2019s a lot of development to do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three companies \u2014 Forterra, Kodiak Robotics and Overland AI \u2014 were working with Army Futures Command\u2019s cross-functional team focused on next-generation combat vehicles and PEO GCS on developing autonomy capability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By that point, the evaluations for autonomous behavior hadn\u2019t been truly off-road, Dean said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking trails and unimproved road conditions,\u201d he said.0 \u201cBuilding an autonomy algorithm that can identify the entire range of things it might encounter is challenging because you have a pretty big data set.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service last year was focused on choosing a platform, and then integrating a wide variety of capabilities into the system including autonomy. However, as part of the Army\u2019s new push to transform itself, it canceled its plans<\/a> to purchase robotic combat vehicles<\/a> and is pivoting to focus more deeply on achieving autonomous capabilities that could work on a wide variety of platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\t