“Inside a cool, dimly lighted trailer where the quiet is broken mostly by the crackle of radio traffic, Abrin Vasquez drives a 40-ton bulldozer hundreds of yards away.

Vasquez is remotely piloting a Caterpillar dozer spreading trash across the Marana Regional Landfill near Tucson, Ariz. He used to be out in the heat running the machine from the cab, a potentially dangerous job in the landfill’s rough, trash-filled terrain. Now, he is safely away from that in the control trailer, doing the same job from a virtual cab…

What Vasquez and others are doing at the Marana landfill is likely a preview of the future of operating machinery in dusty and hazardous conditions. For Houston-based WM, the landfill’s owner, the site has become a proving ground for remote-controlled and autonomous machines aimed at improving safety and reducing operating costs.

Besides the bulldozer, the company plans to deploy an autonomous Caterpillar compactor at the landfill in the coming months. The driverless tractor with spiked steel wheels will run over a programmed course, flattening newly spread trash to create space to bury more garbage.”

From Wall Street Journal.