Clearing avalanches with Statens Vegvesen.

Safety limits halt the work

The road cannot reopen until a person is allowed under the slope.

Vikafjellet is a mountain pass on Riksvei 13 in Vestland. It averages 44 days of closure per year because of severe weather and avalanche risk. For critical infrastructure of this kind, winter operations have historically been static and dangerous.

When an avalanche occurs, snowplow crews cannot simply begin clearing. They must wait, often several hours, until a geologist arrives on site and declares the area safe for human entry. That mandatory waiting period forces long operational delays while traffic stands on both sides of the mountain.

Even once clearing begins, the work remains hazardous. Snowplows have been struck by avalanches during cleanup.

Throughput and machine availability were capped entirely by human safety limits, not by the machine or the weather window.

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The Hive Silicon Brain

We did not engineer a concept vehicle. We enhanced the existing fleet.

Autonomy only creates value when it fits the reality of the operation. Presis Vegdrift did not need a new machine or a specialised winter fleet. They needed the loader they already run to work in conditions that normally stop everything.

Hive took a standard wheel loader and retrofitted it with sensor and camera technology, turning it into a remote-supervised machine running the Hive Silicon Brain. No new vehicle investment. The contractor's existing machinery now performs under conditions that would previously have forced work to a complete stop.

Below the cab, a compact control cabinet houses the computing power and adds no volume to the machine's original footprint. It connects directly to the machine's existing electrical interface, so all original functionality and safety systems remain intact. The system can be switched off at any point, returning the machine to ordinary manual operation.

03

Sensor placement

Tuned with the operators, not shipped as a default.

Sensor placement is set in close collaboration with the people who drive the machine, so the remote seat replicates the situational awareness of sitting in the cab. On Vikafjellet the camera coverage gives the operator the same view they would have had from inside the machine.

That took iteration. Camera view feedback ran as its own work package during the build, with the layout revised against what the operators actually needed in the conditions they actually work in.

The result is a seat that experienced drivers recognise immediately rather than one they have to be retrained into.

04

The new era of work

Zero crews in harm's way.

A dangerous, weather-dependent operation becomes a response system. Instead of sitting inside a vulnerable cab in avalanche terrain, the operator commands the wheel loader from a safe supervisor room.

A single operator can supervise several machines at once from an office-based control centre, instead of being sent one person per machine into avalanche-prone areas.

[Industrial machine intelligence] 05

The limitless advantage

What changed on the pass.

06

The partnership

Three parties, one agreement.

On 2 October 2025, Hive Autonomy, Presis Vegdrift and Statens Vegvesen entered into an agreement to deploy Hive's platform on Presis Vegdrift's wheel loaders, bringing AI-operated heavy machinery to demanding Nordic conditions.

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