Tell us a little about yourself and your role at Forterra.
My name is Joseph Putney, and I’m the Chief Technology Officer at Forterra. I’ve been working in the autonomous vehicle space for more than 20 years now. My journey really began back in 2005 with the DARPA Grand Challenge, which was one of the early catalysts for this entire industry. Fast forward to about three years ago, I stepped into my current role at Forterra, and since then, I’ve been focused on building both our autonomous and intelligent ground systems products.
Forterra has emphasized safety as a core value in its development of autonomous ground systems. How do you embed safety into both the technology itself and the broader deployment process?
It all starts with culture. If you don’t have a safety-first culture, everything else falls apart. In autonomy, you can’t just fall back on a human driver when something goes wrong—so the stakes are incredibly high. Failures can be catastrophic. Safety and capability are the core tenets of the work we do, and that’s how we deliver value to our customers and partners.
When I took on the CTO role, one of the first things I did was bring in leaders with deep expertise in safety management. Stuart Lowe, our VP of Safety, built out our safety management system; we then brought on our Director of Safety Management, Christopher SanGiovanni, to strengthen that foundation. From there, safety simply flows into the products themselves and the people working on them.
We hold ourselves to very high levels of rigor—whether that’s analyzing architectures, driving design changes to address risks, or proving through verification activities that we’re meeting both product and safety requirements. It’s not optional for us. A failure in our space could cost lives, so for us, safety is non-negotiable.
When it comes to defense technology, innovation is a priority, but so are the highest levels of reliability and safety. How does Forterra strike the right balance between rapid innovation and meeting these safety standards?
Forterra isn’t just a self-driving company. Our vision is broader. We’re building autonomous mission capabilities, and at the heart of that is a mobile platform that can safely carry different payloads. Our value proposition isn’t “we can drive a vehicle,” it’s “we can deliver a mobile capability that safely supports a wide range of missions.” That’s the bigger picture we’re working toward.
The level of rigor for any product we develop depends on the context in which the product will be used. For example, operating in a minefield is very different from on-road autonomy. In a minefield, the environment is already dangerous, but the likelihood of running over personnel is low, and the risks are more controllable. Compare that to operating on public roads, where the risk of a fatal accident is high and the ability to control is minimal.
We use different frameworks, like MIL-STD, SMS, and safety case frameworks, that allow us to take a structured, top-down approach; and because safety is embedded in different steps of development, there are certain moments where we have to do a risk assessment before moving forward. Our customers expect this and are deeply invested in it. It’s a mutual commitment to making sure we adhere to the right safety processes and regulations, while still pushing forward with innovation.
Forterra’s systems are designed with dual-use applications in mind. Can you share how this approach enhances efficiency and productivity for your end users, both in defense and commercial sectors?
The beauty of our approach is that we build a core product that is dual-use, meaning it works across both defense and commercial environments. There’s a lot of fundamental overlap, and we lean into that. The same hardware and software architecture we run in a defense mission is the one we use in a distribution center. We use the same requirements, test cases, and safety analyses because the core functions and architecture are the same; this way, we don’t have to duplicate efforts.
By sticking to best practices and focusing on a single, common product, we’re able to maximize efficiency and deliver real value to both sectors.
Ground autonomy presents unique challenges, from terrain variability to unpredictable environments. What are some of the most critical challenges in ground autonomy, and what solutions has your team developed to overcome them?
Most people are familiar with autonomy in robotaxis or long-haul trucking, but the problems we’re solving look very different. We are a defense-first company, so our biggest customer is the Department of Defense, and when you’re operating in the battlefield, you’re facing challenges that simply don’t exist on highways. There is no infrastructure, no reliable maps, and sometimes no communications because satellites can be denied or jammed. On top of that, you can’t assume surfaces are flat and clear; the terrain is complex and unpredictable. You encounter dirt roads, waist-high grass, and blown-up minefields. Our systems have to map the terrain and decide how to navigate it in real time.
Visibility is another huge challenge. We purposely operate in low-visibility conditions because we don’t want to be seen by our adversaries. Our technology has to safely operate in complete blackout, smoky or dusty conditions. That means our sensing systems have to work where normal autonomy systems would fail. We layer our capabilities, such as multiple sensors, radios, frequencies, and unique sensing approaches, so no single limitation puts the mission at risk.
Technology has always been part of defense operations, but it’s the technology we’re building today that’s transforming the sector. Autonomy systems need to process massive amounts of data, analyze environments on the fly, and react in real time. Our systems get smarter with every mission, making life harder for the adversary and safer for our Soldiers.
