Komatsu Takes Automated Dozers to Caterpillar’s Home Turf

Komatsu Ltd., the world’s second-biggest construction equipment maker, has begun sales of its automated bulldozers in the U.S., the home turf of bigger rival Caterpillar Inc., in a bid to keep pace with global competitors.

The company plans to sell as many as 500 of the new dozers, weighing 15 metric tons each, in the U.S. in three years, Tetsuji Ohashi, president of the Tokyo-based Komatsu, said in an interview. These “ICT intensive” bulldozers will eventually be driverless, he said.