Labor shortages are hitting more industries, but they have plagued landscapers for years now, leaving them begging for applicants who never show up, fighting over a limited number of guest worker visas and unable to take on new contracts. Scythe Robotics in Longmont has quietly toiled away for the past three years on an innovation it claims will help alleviate labor shortages and bring the landscaping industry into the technological age — a fully autonomous, all-electric commercial mower, no cheeks in the seat required. “Every landscaper we talked to said they didn’t have enough workers to do their jobs today,” said CEO Jack Morrison, who founded Scythe Robotics with Isaac Roberts and Davis Foster in 2017. Scythe, he said, has come up with a technological solution that costs about 40% less than a traditional mower and avoids landscapers having to hire and fire workers with the changing of the seasons or buy expensive mowing machines. Morrison, who came to Colorado for a robotics Ph.D.