For the past couple of years, the Internet has been abuzz with a rumor that Caterpillar, the big yellow construction equipment company, was working on its own pickup truck. Sites that spread the rumor used terrible AI images of trucks with CAT logos on them, annoying basically everyone. Yet, at least part of the rumor was true. Caterpillar has been tinkering with a pickup truck, and now, for the first time since the rumors started, a real CAT pickup truck exists. The Cat Truck concept is a rebadged Ford Super Duty, and the people of Cat decided to soup it up with a built-in drone and AI.
This news comes to us from our friends at the Drive, and I did a double-take upon reading it. I also had to check the date to make sure it wasn’t March 32st. If your online news feeds are tuned to scoop you non-stop car news like mine are, you might have remembered that time in 2024 when every single website and YouTuber you’ve never heard of was talking about the new Caterpillar pickup truck.
All of it was so exhausting because these stories and videos were so obviously created by AI from top to bottom. Half of the time, the AIs used to produce this slop couldn’t even correctly spell “Caterpillar” and sometimes couldn’t even get “CAT” right. As for the trucks themselves, AI, or the people prompting the AIs, chose existing General Motors, Ford, Ram, or Toyota trucks and just lazily slapped CAT badges on them. Of course, since it was all AI, all of these images had a sort of uncanny look to them – like so:
Yet, clearly, the subject was clicky, and lots of people were interested in the subject. If you go on YouTube, you’ll notice that the obviously fake AI videos about the truck have hundreds of thousands of views. It’s honestly mind-blowing how many people consume entirely fake content.
But I also cannot blame these people for being so interested in this. Caterpillar is an iconic name in the heavy equipment world. Some of the largest mining trucks in the world have that familiar yellow paint scheme and “CAT” in bold white letters. CAT also makes all kinds of common construction equipment, from skid steers and wheel loaders to excavators and dozers. The company’s portfolio is so staggering that, even if you’ve never stepped onto a construction site in your life, you’ve almost certainly seen a CAT. Team yellow even used to make highway engines, which found homes in everything from semi-tractors to school buses.
Anyway, some publications debunked the AI slop, and life continued on. Caterpillar itself never talked about making a pickup truck, and there was no reason to think CAT was working on one. The company clearly deals in heavy equipment, not towing your camper trailer. Then, something funny happened. An anonymous Caterpillar employee reached out to the Drive and confirmed that there was some sort of truck in development, and CAT was already making the engine liners for it. Allegedly, CAT was working on two options, from the Drive: A V6 for $59,000-$69,000 and a V8 starting at $89,000.
Then, the trail went cold again. Almost two years went by without a peep from Caterpillar. If you searched for the truck online, you either got articles debunking the AI or just more AI slop.
A Ford With A Cat Face
That was until this week and the huge trade show going on in Las Vegas. CONEXPO–CON/AGG 2026 is the place for equipment producers to show off their latest tech and concepts. Caterpillar is using this show to finally come out of the shadows about its rumored truck.
What’s interesting is that, in its press release, CAT seems to credit the AI slop for convincing it to make a real pickup truck. From the release:
In late 2024, something unexpected happened. The internet was buzzing with rumors about Caterpillar building a pickup truck. AI-generated images of a Cat pickup were getting everyone excited. You couldn’t look away, and we couldn’t either. Thousands of inquiries flooded in from customers, contractors, and equipment owners with one simple question: “What would a Cat Truck really be like?”
They dreamed of torque and towing power. Those were the easy parts for Caterpillar, so we went further to see how we could help them even more. We dreamed of a tech-forward system that would transform every jobsite.
So, we did something bold. We built it.
The truck that Caterpillar built isn’t nearly as ambitious as the AI guesses or previous reports suggested. In the video accompanying the press release, a jobsite manager approaches a Ford F-450 Super Duty with a 6.7-liter Power Stroke High-Output V8 diesel parked out front of a home. CAT made no effort to disguise the truck. Even the Ford badge is still on the grille, albeit whited out.
The manager touches the truck, and then it suddenly transforms into the same truck, but with a CAT face on it. Reportedly, the Ford logo still pops up in the OEM truck screens, too. When you watch the video, it appears that the rear end of the truck is largely unchanged from the base Ford.
From here, the video turns into a bit of an advertisement for Caterpillar’s AI-enabled tech. Apparently, the Cat Truck (yes, CAT capitalizes the abbreviation of its name, but not for this truck) has something called an Integrated Display Hub, which is an infotainment-style display with a built-in AI assistant, a productivity monitoring program, and a camera system that detects when workers are getting too close to dangerous equipment. The truck also has a driver fatigue monitoring system and a built-in drone launch platform. How many truck owners actually want a drone on their truck’s roof?
What’s interesting is that, immediately after listing out these techy things, Caterpillar says, “Now you can equip your own truck with this same Cat Technology, giving you complete visibility and control of your entire job site at your fingertips.”
The press release is adamant that Caterpillar actually built this truck. The release is only 464 words long, yet Caterpillar says “We built it” four different ways. Weirdly, the release also mentions the truck’s AI inspiration three times. I guess CAT really wants you to know that it took an AI slop truck and made it real.
So Many Questions
The big question is whether this is just a one-off concept truck to advertise CAT’s AI platform, or if this is Caterpillar hinting that it wants to enter the heavy-duty pickup truck market. If it’s the former, this news is sort of a nothingburger. If it’s the latter, well, that leaves us with so many questions.
What I want to know is what happened with the engines that Caterpillar was reportedly developing in 2024? CAT left the highway diesel market in 2010 following the company’s struggles with meeting more stringent emissions standards. As Transport Topics wrote in 2008, CAT’s 2007 engines suffered from performance issues and breakdowns. In 2003, Caterpillar shelled out $128 million in fines to the Environmental Protection Agency for non-compliant engines. Caterpillar was once the market leader in highway diesels, but the events of the 2000s and then the financial crisis wore away at the brand.
So then, is the Cat Truck signaling a return to the road? I suppose it could be easier for Caterpillar if it sold a pickup truck that uses a rebranded Ford 6.7 Power Stroke. But then, if the Cat Truck is just a rebadged Super Duty, what would CAT offer that Ford already doesn’t through itself or its upfitters? What market would there be for a Caterpillar pickup that’s just a rebadged something else?
With that said, it wouldn’t even be the first time that one brand’s trucks were rebadged into another brand’s. Remember Sterling Trucks? In its final years, it sold the Bullet, which was little more than a Dodge Ram HD chassis cab with a new grille.
There are so many questions here, and the easiest, perhaps most likely answer is CAT just made this truck as a publicity stunt. I have reached out to CAT to get clarification on this, and will update this story if I get any meaningful news back.
Even if this is just a publicity stunt, at least it’s a fun one. I have grown tired of seeing AI slop trucks, so seeing this one is honestly refreshing, even if it is just a Super Duty with resting CAT face. If anything, I’m not even sure what I expected, but it wasn’t the truck that Caterpillar made.
A part of me hopes that this is a teaser for a production pickup truck. Is there a market for it? Eh, maybe, maybe not. But the inner child in me wants to see a gigantic yellow diesel pickup truck with a huge Caterpillar logo on it. I already have a mental picture of one of these things hauling a camper, and I can’t help but smile.
Update: Caterpillar responded, saying this:
Caterpillar is showing a one-off concept vehicle that brings the Cat design DNA and Cat jobsite technology into a familiar pickup truck. This isn’t a product, and it’s not tied to a Ford collaboration—it’s simply a vision piece to spark ideas about how work trucks could become mobile command centers in the future.
Top graphic image: Caterpillar
Well, I kinda hate everything about this. It’s the epitome of “AI makes everything worse”. It’s a lazy rebrand of a massively oversized truck that is stuffed with technology that nobody needs with a use case that nobody can identify. If this is really for a job-site supervisor, why does it need to be a gargantuan F-450? Wouldn’t an F-150 make more sense? Half the cost, double the fuel mileage, just as much utility for a SUPERVISOR.
This is just dumb marketing, and another example of why the marketing department of the Sirius Cybernetics Corporation are going to be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.
As a Peorian, I’m disappointed but entirely unsurprised.
Caterpillar is the Ferrari of heavy equipment when it comes to branding. And also has been pushing their AI and worksite tech as well. Meanwhile they canceled their HQ plans here and ran off to Aurora…but, hey, we still have the Visitors Center. Yaaaay, a massive advertisement next to the public museum. So nice of you, Cat.
…I might be a bit jaded. At least this thing will probably live in the Visitor Center for awhile after it stops touring.
CAT rebadging isn’t new. I don’t know if they still do it, but for many years several of their electric warehouse forklifts were rebadged Raymond trucks, one or two generations behind.
The LPG ones were a partnership with Mitsubishi! Ours have LPG 4G63s in them!
I dare you to make a propane Evo
Wouldn’t make much power: the particular 4G63 used in the forklifts had the heavy-duty bottom end (Reportedly same as the Eclipse?) but only the single overhead cam head. And also making power on LPG is apparently quite hard – the tale of Aussie publication “Street Machine’s” ‘Turbo Taxi’ Ford Falcon taxicab has shown that propane is a difficult fuel to work with and make power.
Their on-highway trucks were rebadged Internationals and they also lost a lawsuit to Wirtgen for copying their cold mills.
My dad used to work for a company that made stationary equipment, and they used a lot of CAT engines over the years. I seem to recall that some of the newer ones were really Fiat/Iveco engines (not sure if they were just rebadged or if they were built under license).
While writing this, I’m listening to Al Stewart’s, The Year of the Cat…
This has got to be the worst rebadging of a vehicle since the Geo Tracker.
Nissan’s recently rebadged Mitsubishi Outlander comes to mind.
This is the worst rebadge since the Sterling Bullet.
The ct6 stuff with Navistar was interesting. They did fairly well in some markets. I believe they claimed to be working in their own independent on highway trucks when they ended production about a decade ago. Those should have been extremely easy for them to build especially as their equipment cabs get nicer and nicer. Or like many have done find a supplier for the cabs. I’d believe they were serious about the pickup market if they had something on highway still.
like the paint (decal?) scheme. Could I just order that?
I’d support a Caterpillar Yellow super duty.
I don’t like the badge engineering of it though.
Gross.
So how many drawbar horsepower?
A friend has a pickup with a Cat 3208 engine in it. He had a bluebird schoolbus and a pickup with a blown engine and someone at a party bet him a case of wine that he could swap the engine. My friend didn’t mind giving the guy the case of wine “we were going to end up drinking it together either way” but now he’s stuck with a terrible pickup.
I worked with a guy who built an old International pickup with a Cat 3208, Allison transmission, and GM dually rear axle and pickup bed. A real conglomeration.
Yeah they went through a couple rear axles. They keep it around because there’s a crazy plan to put a PTO shaft and use it as water pump / generator except he has plenty of tractors that it would make a terrible replacement for other than having a heater if they ever got around to plumbing it.
It sounds sort of amazing, a couple of 4 inch water pipes from the junk pile.
Caterpillar, John Deere, Ferrari, Harley-Davidson… Great examples of when manufacturing companies become marketing companies, and the brand becomes the product.
Not saying they’re bad at what they do, but let’s just say Kubota is to the off-highway market what Kia is to the automotive market.
Surprised at that most folks I know with Kubota tractors would put them on the Lexus level.
That is incorrect, Kubota has a stellar track record for durability.
I meant more in terms of market conquest. I opted against comparing to Hyundai or Toyota as Kubota doesn’t have the “we make everything under the sun” aspect to it (and neither does Kia), they’re focused on smaller equipment.
Maybe Genesis is the better benchmark?
CAT has wanted a piece of the pickup truck market for years. It all started with their tie up with Navistar that gave birth to the on-hwy CAT badge wearing HD/XD trucks we see today. Meanwhile Navistar wanted to be back in the pickup truck segment so there were a few drawings floating around of the sketches of a pickup in both International and CAT versions.
They could do worse than to hook up w/ Navistar again and put their engine into this:
https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/163-0506-international-rxt
i have a picture of it on my phone, but…
They could do worse than to hook up w/Navistar again and produce this:
https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/163-0506-international-rxt
I have a picture of it on my phone, looking stunning in bronze
Back when GM was concepting the GMT 800 HD series (late 90s) they had prototypes with Cat, John Deere, and Isuzu engines. Isuzu was the pick because it was more in-house content (GM owned 49% of Isuzu at that time).
If that truck could talk, that front end would say, “kill me, just kill me, please for the love of all things holy, just end me!”
The second time today that this is the appropriate link;
https://youtu.be/Up6g0SDMJ7A
Just say “Abra Turn-Into-A-Prince-Guy” and it could happen!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0CY4IThnmo
CAT Truck: The Bro Dozer for when you lack the skill to operate a Bull Dozer
I didn’t realize the earth moving industry felt so inadequate about their masculinity.
My mom used to joke about being a cat lady when she drove the D6, but I think she would have found this undignified.
Are we sure this isn’t still AI slop?
LOL you know I kept thinking about that when I wrote this, but looking closely at the video footage, it is a real truck…or at least it’s a real Super Duty with a new face.
That picture of the truck driving on the road (photo credit Caterpillar) indeed looks very much like AI slop with the uncannily skinny front tire, the weird shadow cast by the truck (as well as the lack of shadows cast by the poles in the background), and the lane divider lines comprised of oddly tiny dots (granted, the dots might be temporary spray paint marks for future divider lines on a road still under construction but they still look odd.) The picture looks like it might actually be a still from the video (from around 0:27-0:28.)
And the video itself may also be at least partly AI slop on account of so many of the shadows not quite jibing with whatever is casting them or simply not even existing. Gah.
Yeah, AI slop can go jump in the lake now that the lake is boiling thanks to the data center producing aforementioned AI slop…
Oh yeah, I was talking about the stationary shots. Seems to have real tires and I can clearly see the same running boards I’ve seen on other current gen Super Dutys. The driving shot? Who knows. I mean, obviously the AI assistant voice was fake and the screen wasn’t functional. I like how the actor presses the screen and nothing happens.
It would be fascinating if Caterpillar spent much of its press release talking about how real it is just for it to be even more AI slop.
They should have partnered with whatshisface and put the Nyancat wrap on it.
The drone can be used in earthwork to create a topographic map before construction.
CAT’s actual truck still somehow manages to look like AI slop.
Sigh. Sigh sigh sigh.
This is even more half-assed than the CAT “Severe Service” rebadge of the International PayStar like 15 years ago.
That front end is giving the KIA Tasman competition for ugliest pickup grille.
I do appreciate that the most solid-goods manufacturer in history is dipping its toe into AI. Better get while the gettin’s good?
Sat nav for agriculture seems like a popular thing for manufacturers now, paywalled naturally.
May explain the ai fetish
Forget the rest of the terrible aesthetic, that grille is the worst truck grille to ever grille. Run that thing over with a D10.
These things go to 11…
Yuck.