How Graze's Self-Driving Mower Is Transforming Commercial Landscaping

Although the U.S. commercial landscaping industry is worth $98.7 billion, it's trapped in dire financial straits. Its outdated equipment depends on manual labor, whose high turnover results in exorbitant staffing costs. Even the industry's top-rated companies scrape along on profit margins of 10% or less. But Graze's AI-driven mowing systems appear poised to revolutionize this technologically stagnant sector.

Many landscapers would welcome technological innovation, because most of today's commercial mowing equipment have seen strikingly little evolution over the past century. For example, many riding mowers are still powered by costly diesel engines, which can generate more than 34 times the carbon emissions of an average car.

Squeezed between the high costs of fuel and manual labor, and faced with few carbon-neutral equipment options, a growing number of commercial landscapers are facing bleak financial futures — a stark reality that's created clear and urgent demand for disruptive solutions.

To address these issues, Graze's autonomous mowing systems have provided the technological answers this industry seeks — potentially saving many landscaping companies from financial ruin, while reducing environmental impact and attracting thousands of investors along the way.

An industry in search of innovation

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, America's commercial landscaping businesses were facing dire financial straits. In 2019, a full 13% reported no profit at all, while the vast majority said their profits had dropped over the past year. High turnover rates and increasing labor costs remain vital concerns for landscapers, who expect to face even lower labor availability and narrower profit margins throughout the remaining months of 2021.

While landscapers recognize these challenges, the industry's constraints leave them very little room to maneuver. For example, lawn mowing remains the industry's bread and butter — but it's one of the lowest-margin services a landscaper can offer, typically generating less than 10% profit even for the sector's top-grossing companies. Rising wages and labor shortages slice these profit margins even thinner — leaving many commercial landscapers desperate for solutions that'll deliver immediate bottom-line impact.

An AI-powered lawn mowing solution

As the commercial landscaping industry remains trapped between thin profit margins, high labor costs and tightening environmental restrictions, a tech startup called Graze may provide an escape hatch — a self-driving electric-powered lawnmower that can cut labor costs by as much as 50%, while eliminating a full 75% of fuel expenses.

In fact, Graze currently manufactures the world's only commercial-size autonomous mower designed specifically for golf courses, country clubs and the landscaping companies that service them. Equipped with ultrasonic and odometry sensors, and computer vision, Graze's mowers safely and precisely navigate commercial job sites.

Each Graze mower can be controlled from a computer, tablet or smartphone. With the push of a button, the mower navigates around the boundaries of the area it'll service, tracing the borders and interior in a series of parallel paths. One initial run is all it takes for the mower to map the space and take note of all obstacles, like trees and bushes. From then on, it'll automatically mow that same area at the push of a button.

What's more, Graze mowers actively collect real-world data every time they mow. They feed this information into a central analytics console, where machine-learning algorithms analyze performance, pinpoint inefficiencies and plot more effective pathways for the next run. That means each mower's performance automatically improves over time — without any need for human feedback.

A glimpse into landscaping's future

Graze's current generation of mowers has already raised more than $6.3 million in capital from more than 4,000 investors — including backing from Wavemaker Partners, a global venture capital fund managing more than $500 million in assets. Led by CEO John Vlay, a landscaping veteran with a vast network of industry connections, the company has already secured $19.35 million in pre-orders from landscapers and country clubs.

Riding this wave of support, Graze has already developed a second-generation mower equipped with laser imaging, detection and ranging (LIDAR), which enables it to spot and navigate around smaller, faster-moving objects. The latest version of Graze also comes with a seven-hour battery system, as well as a customizable mow deck, which can be fitted with specialized attachments for trimming, edging, snow blowing, mulching and more.

And that's just the beginning of Graze's overall vision. Leveraging the real-world data its mowers collect every day, the company is hard at work building an integrated AI system that'll manage entire fleets of autonomous mowers — detecting and treating plant diseases, balancing workloads and even tracking weather data to coordinate and direct automated mowing services where they're needed most.

At present, Graze has opened up a limited opportunity to individual investors, permitting them to buy private stock in a company poised for rapid growth across the $98.7 billion commercial landscaping market, as well as the $14.16 billion golfing market. The last time Graze offered company stock for sale, they quickly sold out $3.88 million in shares. More than 4,000 investors have already bought up 50% of this round's offerings — and the number of available shares is shrinking every day.

Self-driving vehicles and electric power have already transformed the automotive industry — and the commercial landscaping sector may well be next. Graze's specialized machine learning, computerized vision and zero-emission electrical drive systems are paving the way for a fully autonomous future, in an industry that desperately needs new solutions.

As labor costs continue to rise, and staff shortages keep increasing, many landscaping companies may soon be left with no choice but to follow their forward-looking competitors and invest in Graze's promise for a more sustainable future.