The word "autonomous" is a hot topic for cars, planes, and any other machines that move. While self-driving cars are neat, this isn't Car Talk; this is Dirt Talk.

Enter Built Robotics, a Bay Area start-up racing to automate skid steers, bulldozers, and excavators. Started only a few years ago, they're making serious progress in their quest to create robots capable of digging ditches, grading roads, and building house pads.

Like any other technology in the Dirt World, there's plenty of skepticism and misinformation surrounding Built's work. To learn fact from fiction, I visited their headquarters outside of San Francisco late last year to meet their robots. Boy, was I impressed.

I was so impressed that I knew I needed them on the podcast to spread the word about what they're really up to.

To learn more about their technology and robots, check out their website at builtrobotics.com.