A Canadian mine operator reports that Caterpillar's MineStar autonomous platform is not robust enough to navigate around objects, causing autonomous haul trucks to stop dead in the middle of roads.

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    "summary": "A Canadian mine operator reports that Caterpillar's MineStar autonomous platform is not robust enough to navigate around objects, causing autonomous haul trucks to stop dead in the middle of roads.",
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      {
        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/mining/comments/1xjmh05/comment/19rw45xzofz7p/",
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        "score": 29,
        "author": "krynnul",
        "excerpt": "This isn't a place for your advertising, Caterpillar.",
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        "score": 9,
        "author": "Far-Manufacturer-43",
        "excerpt": "At my mine, \"automation\" means an equal number of people now drive trucks remotely from the surface in the hours it takes the blast fumes to clear.",
        "posted_at": "2026-10-30T18:16:59.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/Far-Manufacturer-43/"
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        "author": "Yahn",
        "excerpt": "My mine is fully autonomous Komatsu... There's tons of people driving around in pickup trucks doing fuck all day after day just course correcting the trucks when they inevitably go off path or stop for no reason... It's crazy what kind of destruction the trucks have gone thru with nobody driving them... The engineer department put accelerometers on the trucks and they were hitting 10gs... That's 3",
        "posted_at": "2026-10-30T18:26:46.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/Yahn/"
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        "author": "Sea_Guide_524",
        "excerpt": "I just started at Mariana Minerals, they have a system called pronto and whole crap ton of engineers here.\nI came from underground coal and that transition alone has been huge. They have plans for fully autonomous pit by next year from what I have been told.",
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        "author": "EinTheDataDoge",
        "excerpt": "Autonomous is far from here. Don’t believe the hype. We switch to autonomous at one of our sites and we don’t have any near term plans to do another because of all the issues. We did manage to relocate all of the operators with 0% of the workforce let go.",
        "posted_at": "2026-10-30T19:02:52.000Z",
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        "author": "tommcatch",
        "excerpt": "Autonomous trucks have been running for 20 years in Australia.",
        "posted_at": "2026-10-30T21:42:10.000Z",
        "author_url": "https://www.reddit.com/user/tommcatch/"
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        "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/mining/comments/1xjmh05/comment/19rxfys9p7ocg/",
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        "author": "Airborne_Ape",
        "excerpt": "Futuristic? LOL. We've been running a hundred of them in Canada since 2016. Also, the MineStar platform is not robust enough to allow AMT's to navigate around objects, they stop dead in the middle of haul roads. The people are fine, they became support equipment operators and drive graders and dozers with higher wages. No technology is going to move anyone out of the dust. You have a lot to learn",
        "posted_at": "2026-10-31T12:01:26.000Z",
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      "[comment u/Airborne_Ape] Also, the MineStar platform is not robust enough to allow AMT's to navigate around objects, they stop dead in the middle of haul roads.",
      "[comment u/Airborne_Ape] We've been running a hundred of them in Canada since 2016."
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    "post_date": "2026-10-30T17:56:58.000Z",
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    "post_text": "Mining is changing fast, and autonomy is no longer a futuristic concept. It’s here. It’s already being used to move operators out of the cab and change how haulage gets done.\n\nWith systems like Cat Command, trucks can navigate around equipment and personnel, respond to the shovel, position for loading, haul to dump points and report for maintenance without an operator onboard.\n\nOne of the bigger conversations around autonomy, though, is what happens to the people, most especially in communities where mining jobs support families and entire towns.\n\nThe technology can move operators out of high-risk areas and away from hazards like dust, noise and potential collisions. Many of these employees transition to roles that oversee systems and operations. Mines still need people handling maintenance, loading, planning, supervision and system monitoring.\n\nSo the interesting question may be less about whether autonomous trucks are coming and more about how they change the jobs around them.\n\nFor anyone working at a mine using autonomous haul trucks: What has the transition actually looked like on the ground?",
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