Dirt Talk Podcast
What Happens When Heavy Equipment Starts Driving Itself? w/ Dick Zhang (DT 481)
This episode isn’t summarized yet
Create a free account and summarize it. In a few minutes you’ll have the key takeaways and a section-by-section summary.
Show notes
September 24, 2026
What Happens When Heavy Equipment Starts Driving Itself? w/ Dick Zhang
Dick Zhang is the CEO of Bluelight Machines, a construction autonomy company putting self-driving technology to work on real jobsites. In less than a year, Bluelight’s autonomous fleet has grown from fewer than 100 active machines to nearly 200, expanded from the U.S. to five continents, and surpassed 1.5 billion square feet of material rolled autonomously.
What started with contractors looking for solutions to workforce challenges grew into a company deploying autonomous heavy equipment around the world. Dick explains why civil construction is a bottom-up business, why technology that operators don’t want to use quickly becomes an expensive paperweight, and why Bluelight’s goal isn’t to replace skilled operators but to multiply what they’re capable of doing. He also shares how the company’s first autonomous roller was built using technology adapted from drones, why balancing safety and production requires constantly learning from what happens in the field, and how transparency around those lessons can make the entire industry better.
Follow Dick on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zhangr/
Learn more about Bluelight Machines at: https://bluelightmachines.com/
Want to better develop your civil construction workforce and leaders? Check out BuildWitt Improve! https://buildwitt.com
Questions or feedback? Email us at dirttalk@buildwitt.com!
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices