Interview with Stanford Grounds

Company: Stanford Ground Transportations

Contact: Mary Nolan, maryn@bonair.stanford.edu, 650 924 3138

Date: 01/12/2011

Interviewer: Joe, Jorge, Uwe

Key takeaways:

• The supervisors would not feel comfortable sending out an autonomous mower by itself. They would prefer an operator going out with 2-3 mowers "supervising" the mowers.
• The environment changes regularly (e.g. new lamp posts, ...). They would need to reprogram the autonomous mowers regularly.
• Health and safety costs is a big issue which autonomous mowers could help to solve.
• The mowers and the supervisors are a committed team; replacing team members by machines will raise some emotional issues.

Company / Operations:

1. How large is your operation? (i.e. how many acres?)

• 97 acres

2. How often do you mow?

• Each loan about two times per week, e.g. the Stanford oval twice a week 9:30-12:00am

3. How many people are involved in mowing? What is a typical salary? Is labor a significant cost-driver for you? Are they your direct employees? Are they unionized?

• 7 employees employed for only mowing (5 days a week, 8h a day), Salary: $33 per hour, Unionized: yes

4. How many machines are used? What is the most common brand / machine used. What type of machines do you use? How much does each mower cost? What is there useful life

• About 15 mowers ranging from push-behind mowers ($1,000) to tractor-sized machines ($65k)

Typical mower: golf cart size ($18k)

Different sizes ranging from 21inch cutting width to 48inch. Use of type depends on terrain and corridor widths. Usually: the larger the loan the larger the mower.

Value Proposition

Assuming the cost for an automated machine can be recovered in 1 year through labor reduction, would you buy this product? How much labor do you think it could you save?

• No clear answer, but it seemed interesting to them to have a worker checking the loan and then supervising 2-3 autonomous mowers to do the work. Meanwhile, the worker would check an adjacent loan.

2. For mowing: Is labor safety an issue? Could autonomous machines solve it?

• Yes and yes. They have problems with heavy machines and steep/wet terrain.
• Medical costs are substantial, injuries occur on a regular basis. Mary wanted to check some numbers for us.

4. Is idle capacity an issue? Would you benefit from using autonomous machines by night?

• Not really. At night the irrigation is on, i.e. mowing is not possible. Plus, in some areas there are noise restrictions.

5. What are the quality criteria for mowing/weeding? Is human error a problem?

• Straight lines, nice edging, no damage of the turf due to heavy mowers

Customer Relationships/Channel:

1. Where do you buy your current equipment?

• Exclusively from dealers: customer support (troubleshooting, spare parts, education about upgrades) is very important. They buy from Turf & Industrial, Santa Clara, and MMI Power Equipment, Milpetas

2. What level of confidence would you want before you buy? Is a demonstration enough? Or a trial period?

• Definitely trial period.