Their rapid adoption is reshaping course maintenance and raising fresh questions about future labor demand for the tens of thousands employed as groundskeepers.

There have been dozens of news stories this year about Roomba-esque machines roaming golf courses:

Oahu's first fully autonomous fairway mower turns heads on the golf course

At the Country Club of New Bedford in North Dartmouth, Massachusetts, Assistant Superintendent Walter Garcia told industry publication Golfweek, "It's pretty much like a Roomba. You don't just let it go completely on its own. You set it up, give it its directions, and it maps out what it needs to do."

Garcia noted, "After that, it can move around and handle the work, but we're still there monitoring it and making sure everything runs properly."