Forterra and Hypercraft's armed driverless supply vehicle is still a trade-show pitch

The person this vehicle is built to replace is the driver on a supply run through ground under fire ^[1]. "We're going after contested logistics and other missions where a driver is the most exposed person on the battlefield," Forterra Chief Growth Officer Scott Sanders told Tectonic ^[9].

The AUSA stand has two products on it, and only one of them is being bought ^[1]. That one is AutoDrive, a kit of software, sensors and computers that lets an existing vehicle run without a driver ^[4]. It is already on Polaris Ranger 1500 utility vehicles in Ukraine, Ford F-250 pickups for the U.S. Army and Oshkosh JLTVs in the Marine Corps' ROGUE-Fires anti-ship missile launcher ^[13]. The one being pitched is Razorback. Hypercraft, a Provo, Utah company, built electric powertrains for commercial vehicles before it unveiled Razorback earlier this year ^[5]. At AUSA it carried the AutoDrive kit and a turret, and no buyer has been announced ^[2][3].

Sanders said Razorback was designed for autonomy from the outset, which made integration straightforward. He contrasted it with unmanned vehicles made from crewed trucks that get self-driving equipment after production ^[11]. "Razorback and AutoDrive combine to deliver a platform that can go further, over more complicated terrain, and power platforms in ways that traditional UGVs cannot," he said ^[10]. Those crewed trucks with kits added later are also a fair description of Forterra's own installed base: pickups and utility vehicles that had AutoDrive fitted after they left the factory ^[4][13].

Edda, from 9 Mothers in Austin, Texas, weighs roughly 50 pounds ^[14]. That is about 1.25 percent of the 4,000 pounds Hypercraft says Razorback can carry, leaving about 3,950 pounds for supplies ^[6][19].

Forterra said its partnerships prioritize operational needs and production scalability, and that autonomy needs coordination across the vehicle, sensors, computers, communications and operator ^[18]. In August the Army tested Edda ^[17] on a self-driving Ford F-250 fitted with Forterra technology, during a live-fire exercise at Fort Bragg, North Carolina ^[17]. The F-250 is a truck Forterra already equips for the Army ^[13].

We'd sort each configuration on two tests: whether a military customer has run this exact setup, and whether anyone has signed for it. By Forterra's own mission and contract counts, AutoDrive on vehicles a force already owns passes both ^[12]. Edda on a Forterra-driven F-250 has the Army test and no reported contract ^[17]. Razorback carrying AutoDrive and Edda has neither yet ^[3]. A yes on both means buying against a record. Where there is a test and no signature, the setup is still under evaluation, and the useful step is asking the Army for its results ^[17]. If something was signed without a test, the contract terms are what to read. With neither, the buyer is looking at a demonstration.

Our recommendation to a unit or program office is to treat the Razorback package as a demonstration until a customer runs it or signs for it ^[2][3]. The tradeoff is time. Waiting gives up whatever a purpose-built vehicle adds over a retrofitted pickup, and so far the only measures of that are Hypercraft's own specifications and Sanders' word ^[7][10].