Startup launches road-repair robot that stores CO₂

The Carbon Rover has been tested on road projects across five countries. Image: Carbon Rover

The company says that it demolishes, mills, transports, mixes, and stabilses in one integrated system.

The firm claims that this means it can delivers roads up to three times stronger and longer-lasting in half the time and cost of conventional methods, while sequestering hundreds of tons of CO2 per mile.

The Carbon Rover recycles the existing road surface in a single pass, guided by an SkyRoads AI system, creating a carbon-storing road base.

Carbon Crusher says that this reduces time, cost, and emissions – cutting project duration by up to half and costs by up to 70%.

Instead of emitting CO2, the Carbon Rover’s process avoids the majority of value-chain and process emissions, actually sequestering carbon: up to 500 tons of CO2 equivalents can be locked away per mile of road rehabilitated, turning the world’s road network into a massive carbon sink.

The machine has been tested on road projects across five countries. The Rover is designed and manufactured in Norway, with plans to begin US production soon.

“Our vision was to build something that could perform under any conditions,” said COO and Co-founder, Hans Arne Flåto. “A road-refurbishment machine that doesn’t just patch problems, but regenerates them – making roads stronger, longer-lasting, and improving them faster and cleaner than ever before.”

A carbon eating machine

With more than 40 million miles of road worldwide, the potential to decarbonise infrastructure is vast. A fleet of just six Carbon Rovers – each able to sequester up to 940 tons of CO2 equivalents per day – could, even at 50% capacity, remove one million tons of CO2 within two years.