Local entrepreneurs hope to cash in on a hands-free home chores future
Apr 22, 2025 12:46PM ● By Carl Fauver
Two of these autonomous, robotic lawn mowers are now going into their second season keeping Centennial Plaza well groomed, outside Taylorsville City Hall. (Carl Fauver/City Journals)
“Meet George Jetson… his boy, Elroy… daughter, Judy… Jane, his wife…”
Sure, sure – the original version of the Hanna-Barbera prime time animated sitcom “The Jetsons” only lasted one season on ABC… way back during the Kennedy administration. But come on, you’re hearing that opening theme song in your head right now; or your grandpa is.
We saw George trying to outsmart his boss, at Spacely Space Sprockets. We envied his cool home at Skypad Apartments. We even saw George visit Elroy’s Little Dipper School. Oh, and we definitely wanted his space mobile that folded up into a briefcase.
In those 24 futuristic episodes, two things we never did see George do is mow a lawn or shovel a driveway. But two Taylorsville High School graduates say that part of the Jetson world we imagine – mowing and shoveling without lifting a finger – is already upon us.
Eric Behunin graduated from THS in 1994 and is a third-generation landscape professional in his family. Meantime, 2001 THS graduate Joe Fitisemanu recently partnered up with him. Together, they operate SmartYard – with plans to franchise their concept across the country.
“Last year, 80% of all the new lawnmowers sold in Europe were autonomous; and (the United States) is about five years behind them,” Behunin claims. “Our robotic mowers can work well on 95% of all lawns across our country. We believe this is a completely untapped market. Our plan is to open a second SmartYard business in the Dallas area later this year – and to franchise stores, nationwide.”
While Behunin was born into a landscape design and yard maintenance family, his new minority business partner Fitisemanu just invested in SmartYard last year.
“I met Eric in church and we began discussing his idea,” Fitiseman said.
“These products are rare, because they are win-win-win. Lawn care and snow removal done with these products save money,… reduce labor… and are more green (environmentally friendly). Products like these are incredibly rare to find.”
Fitisemanu is now vice president of sales for SmartYard. They operate out of a multi-business building Behunin has owned for years, on 4800 South just off Redwood Road.
“My grandfather used to climb and prune trees on Temple Square, while my dad operated a landscaping business out of our Taylorsville home that once had as many as 50 employees,” Behunin said.
“I worked about 10 years for my dad – and my brother still runs Behunin Tree. But I wanted to do something a little different.”
After graduating from Taylorsville High, and serving a Church mission in England, Behunin earned an apprentice program certification in horticulture from Utah Valley State College (now UVU). In 2013 he founded his first business, Horticultural Group (hortgroup.com).
“Initially, we were strictly a landscape design business and didn’t provide any actual lawncare maintenance,” Behunin added.
“Later, we did start to provide the kind of lawn care you see driving around all the time, three or four workers operating all kinds of lawnmowers, edgers and other equipment. But in about 2018 we started finding it very hard to find qualified employees. Two years later, the pandemic came along. That’s when I really started to get serious about investigating autonomous mowers.”
Behunin now has about 150 clients along the Wasatch Front. Perhaps the most high-profile of them all is Taylorsville City.
“The city purchased the two mowers we have operating on Centennial Plaza and they work very well,” Mayor Kristie Overson said. “They are very quiet and do their job. We haven’t seen any downside to them. We’ll be starting into our budget season soon and the council may consider purchasing more of the mowers for our parks.”
“Taylorsville City is our first, and so far only, municipality to buy off on this new technology,” Behunin said. “We’re very grateful to them. I know they have talked about our products with leaders from other cities. Our robotic mowers will save Taylorsville City thousands of dollars in maintenance costs, just on Centennial Plaza. I’m sure we’ll be talking with them about purchasing others for their parks.”
The “bigger picture” for Behunin and Fitisemanu, down the road, is focused on franchising their autonomous lawn maintenance concept across the country.
“This is an untapped market; it’s wide open,” Behunin concluded. “These electric, GPS-controlled robotic mowers will be everywhere in a few years. We plan to be on the leading edge of that change.”
If you are curious about autonomous lawn mowers and snow blowers, there’s all kinds of information on line. Reviews are a bit mixed, but seem to be mostly positive. You can also learn more at Behunin and Fitisemanu's website: gosmartyard.com.
Now, if we could just get Behunin and Fitisemanu to perfect that flying car that folds into a briefcase.
