If someone told you five years ago that a quarry drill rig would one day run itself—no operator in the cab, no one pulling levers, just doing its job while humans supervise from a distance—you might’ve assumed they were pitching the next season of The Jetsons: Quarry Edition.

But here we are. On September 2, 2025, Epiroc and Luck Stone officially launched the first fully autonomous SmartROC D65 drill rig in the U.S. aggregate market. Not remote-controlled. Not semi-autonomous. Fully. Autonomous. As in: the rig drills entire patterns, solo, while someone watches from afar. Welcome to the future—steel, dust, and all.

And no, this isn’t just a tech demo on a test track. This is live, operational equipment working in one of the country’s largest quarrying companies. Epiroc brought the tech, Luck Stone brought the rocks (and the forward thinking), and together they’re showing that automation isn’t just for Teslas and warehouse bots anymore.

The SmartROC D65 MKII doesn’t just look futuristic—it acts it. It meets GMG Level 4 standards, meaning it's basically one step away from asking if it can take a lunch break. Using Epiroc’s Common Automation Panel (CAP) and Link Open Autonomy (LinkOA), the rig can be monitored and managed remotely, integrating with the rest of the fleet like a very polite robot that never complains or takes a day off.

Why does this matter? Because the U.S. aggregate industry is the biggest on Earth, and it’s not exactly famous for early adoption of cutting-edge tech. So when a giant like Luck Stone not only embraces autonomy but puts it to work in the field, that’s more than a one-off experiment—it’s a signal.

It’s also a practical response to real issues: skilled labor shortages, safety concerns, and the never-ending pursuit of efficiency. Plus, with longtime Epiroc dealer James River Equipment providing boots-on-the-ground support, this isn’t just a plug-and-play fantasy. It’s built to work long-term, quirks and all.

Luck Stone has already been playing in the autonomy sandbox with haul trucks and plant systems, so the drill rig is a natural next step—natural in the same way that giving your lawnmower GPS might be natural. But hey, it works.

Epiroc and Luck Stone plan to share performance data publicly, meaning others in the industry can learn from this instead of watching from the sidelines in disbelief.

So yes, we now live in a world where quarry drill rigs drive themselves. And if that still sounds like sci-fi, well… grab a hard hat. The future’s already digging.