Move Over Farmers, The Fully Autonomous, Self-Driving Tractor Has Officially Arrived
Move Over Farmers, The Fully Autonomous, Self-Driving Tractor Has Officially Arrived
BY TYLER DURDEN FRIDAY, JAN 07, 2022 - 05:00 PM
It's not often you hear the words "John Deere" and
"controversy" together, but that's exactly what is coming to pass as
the agricultural staple looks to debut its first fully autonomous tractor.
Equipped with six pairs of stereo cameras and AI, John
Deere’s new 8R tractor can both perceive its environment and navigate,
according to a new writeup by Wired.
It relies on neural network algorithms analyzing data streaming into its
cameras.
In fact, it can even "find its way to a field on its own
when given a route and coordinates, then plow the soil or sow seeds without
instructions, avoiding obstacles as it goes," the report says.
This is a far cry from the autonomous tractors available today,
many of which can only operate in limited situations.
Jahmy Hindman, Deere’s chief technology officer, said at CES
2022: “It's a monumental shift. I think it's every bit as big as the
transition from horse to tractor.”
The benefits of such tractors are obvious: they could help lower labor costs for farmers significantly. The negative consequences around such tractors includes the very same labor that would be threatened from the innovation.
Technical issues with the tractor have "largely been
solved," according to Qin Zhang, director of the Center for Precision
& Automated Agricultural Systems at Washington State University.
The question now is whether some farmers find the tractor either
too expensive, or too difficult to program. And not everybody is on board with the
innovation, Wired noted. Kevin Kenney, an agricultural engineer who has
criticized Deere’s limits on farmers’ ability to repair their own equipment,
says that the tractors could make farmers more reliant on Deere for repairs,
similar to the way newer vehicles need to be taken to the dealership more than
they used to.
“I’m all for innovation, and I think John Deere is a helluva
company, but they’re trying to be the Facebook of farming,” he said.
Its autonomous tractor could just be the beginning, too. Wired
says that the introduction of this tractor also "provides a virtuous
cycle for training new AI algorithms and developing new products."
Deere hasn't disclosed a price for its new tractor yet.
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