As the founder of AutonomouStuff and the Chief Autonomous Officer of Hexagon's Autonomy and Positioning division, I am honored to take part in one of the most invigorating challenges undertaken by mankind. It's also incredibly humbling to witness firsthand the scale of the task and the ingenuity unleashed to solve it.
If there was one thing that we learned in 2020, it’s that unpredictable circumstances can change our way of life in unprecedented ways. Needless to say, people and companies around the world are struggling. Unfortunately, the struggle will continue well into 2021. Companies that are still thriving have a culture that accepts change and are driven to create forward progress for a better future.
Fortunately, Hexagon's Autonomy and Positioning division has fared well through these challenging times. We had to make insanely tough choices and, in some cases, significantly modify the way we do business. This is what allowed our continued success.
We adapted so we could continue serving our diverse customer base, ensuring we do whatever we can to help our customers continue to be successful. Even in this unprecedented time, forward progress has been possible.
We were able to clearly define who we are, reinforce our mission and strengthen our strategies. We also significantly stepped up for our customers by investing in our own proving/test grounds, allowing us the means to test our world-class agriculture, mining and urban automated driving software technologies in real-world scenarios.
A personal note
For many, 2020 was a year of self-reflection. I have definitely spent a large part of the year looking inward. As many who know the company are aware, I founded AS in 2010 to fill a gap I saw in the supply chain in the autonomous industry. Since then, AS has grown into well-known, respected global company that has provided hundreds of automated R&D platforms worldwide, created and implemented ground breaking software and hardware solutions for autonomy and has worked to revolutionalize and improve the way we move around throughout the world. We were welcomed into the Hexagon family in September 2018. As a part of the Hexagon team, we have continued to grow and are proud to now have an abundance of resources at our fingertips to make sure we continue to enable our customers for years to come. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Grayson Brulte and tell the AS story from start to present, on The Road to Autonomy. It has definitely been a wild ride, but one I am forever grateful and proud to have been a part of.
Words of wisdom
For our customers:
When it comes to customers, we are hyper focused on enabling success. Our customers’ success is our success.
For our technology partners:
An ecosystem of world class companies continues to come together in order to make a significant impact in this ever changing, ever evolving industry.
For our employees:
Life is short so enjoy what you do while being a part of a company who has a mission that will impact the generations following us. We may not be perfect, but one thing is incredibly clear, there is a bright future and that future will be more automated and more sustainable.
Moving forward
We are creating incredibly advanced technology that will perceive, precisely position and smoothly control real-world production applications. We are in the business to invest into a self-sustaining world that will forever influence the future of automation.
I can't imagine a better time to be a part of Hexagon's A&P division, which is dedicated to providing solutions and developing world class technology that will safely automate the future.
I have said this every year for a decade, this is still just the beginning!