Cutting edge: City of Huntsville’s remote control lawn mowers help keep workers safe

HUNTSVILLE, Ala (WHNT) —The City of Huntsville is taking cutting grass to a new level, as they are using something ‘cutting edge.’

The city’s remote control mower, also nicknamed R2-D2 by the city’s landscaping team, works an eight-hour shift like the rest of us.

“It cuts all around the city,” The city’s landscape manager Tony Ivey said.

Ivey said it’s a little over two years old, and the mower joined the task force to tackle steep terrain and heavy traffic areas.

“We pick and choose [where we use it] because it is a smaller mower compared to what we have,” he said. “We pick and choose the higher sloped pavement areas and traffic areas that we mow with it.”

Ivey explained that something as simple as a driver glancing at their phone and crossing into the median can cause a worker to lose their life

“One of our goals with this was just to try and keep it as safe for our workers and people that are out there providing services for the citizens of Huntsville, trying to, you know, let them go back home to their families,” he said.

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When asked about the safety of others around them, he said the remote control mowers have the same chance of malfunctioning as traditional mowers, but it eliminates the danger for the human riding on them.

He also said that the robot mowers will not affect human jobs.

“Labor is our toughest asset right now,” said Ivey. “It’s tough to find a labor force, so it will relieve some of that in the future, but, remember, you still have to have someone operate it… it’s just not on top of the mower. So, it’s not really going to affect the labor force that much.”

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