John Deere’s independent tractor takes us one step closer to the farmland

The most exciting tool of the year is not TV that shows NFTs or tablet tablet or anything related to metaverse. It is a stand-alone tractor.

Specifically, that is John Deere 8R self-driving tractor capable of cultivating fields, avoiding barriers, and planting crops without human intervention. It looks just like any other John Deere tractor – with green and yellow – but there are six stereo cameras that use the ability to create a roundabout and adjust precision. The farmer does not need to be anywhere near the machine to use it, either, since there is a smartphone app that runs everything. Tractors will go on sale later this year, during the special harvest season.

“In my opinion, it is very difficult,” Santosh Pitla, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Nebraska, told Recode. John Deere’s equipment makes up more than half of all farm machinery sold in the United States, and even the simple fact that placing an independent tractor on the market will change the way agriculture works. “This is great news,” Pitla said, “and it is good news.”

This is very difficult for John Deere, but it also represents a great future for legitimate agriculture. In short, the right agriculture it’s an idea which uses computers, data collection, and satellite imagery to create a way to increase farm output. Independent agricultural implements such as ground sensors, special drones, and self-propelled tractors are needed in the future as we can produce more crops. with less effort and less environmental impact. But exactly who is looking forward to that future and who is benefiting from it must be determined.

There is reason to believe that farmers with thousands of acres will be the first in line to purchase John Deere self-driving tractors. With models from 230 to 410 are powerful, John Deere 8R tractors and large machines designed for large farms. And although the company did not say how much the new freight tractor would cost, the existing models, the non-stand-alone tractor on the 8R line. it could cost $ 600,000. John Deere says it sells mechanical equipment as tools that can be mounted on other types of tractors. The company also said it wanted to offer a registration system, but did not say how much it would cost.

But even if a farmer buys a tractor directly, it is not known who owns the equipment or valuable agricultural data that he collects. John Deere’s new tractors are full of sensors and connected to the internet. Almost everything the machine does is cut and illuminated on a cloud from a handheld transmitter, and John Deere has the potential to shut off most of its tractors if it proves that someone has it changed their weapons or missed rent payments. Many farmers say so I can’t even fix the tractors alone, for fear of reaching the switch that stops the machine completely. This means that they are forced to pay John Deere or his legitimate retailer for their needs. Meanwhile, John Deere’s privacy policy and data claims that it can share information about farmers’ activities that its programs collect with “external parties” in some cases.

“I’m a new developer, and I think John Deere is a helluva company,” said Kevin Kenney, an agricultural engineer and design consultant. said Wired John Deere after announcing his independent tractor. “But they are trying to be the agricultural Facebook.”

John Deere is not the only one who specializes in self-propelled equipment, and it is not clear that large self-propelled tractors are using the best technology. That is the case the idea of ​​an independent tractor which does not even have a personal steering wheel, and AGCO, which has agricultural equipment such as Fendt and Massey Ferguson, is testing small autonomous machines, including a robot for planting seeds that’s the size of the washing machine. DJI, a well-known drone manufacturer, now has a full share dedicated to flying agricultural robots which can be useful for anything from crop management to pesticide spraying.

A number of researchers think that small-scale machines that work together are reliable for most farmers. Pitla, a Nebraska professor, is working hard to replace a single 500-tractor tractor. and 10 50-horsepower tractors. Not only does the group work well with a variety of activities but also small farms, whose location may not be the same as large farms, but if one tractor is broken, the rest can work.

“I have seen farmers plant for 18 hours because the weather is good, the soil is good,” Pitla said. “It’s a timely operation. Therefore, if you have a lot of mechanical equipment, then you are sharing the risks.

When you consider that agricultural activity is facing unemployment, which others say it is getting worse, the concept of self-governing agricultural tools is very interesting. This can alleviate the worries that machines lose jobs to people, but it could take years before we can understand how the use of electricity in agriculture can seriously affect the labor market.

DJI

Farmers and technical experts hope that self-propelled tractors and other independent agricultural implements will bring about a better harvest season. The principle of good agricultural management is that, once we understand the soil better and address the crop problem, we can squeeze more yields from the few cultivated areas in the world without harming the environment. This has led to the growing controversy over whether industrial agriculture is being run rudely and taking advantage of land, or whether farm integration is more effective. With the right release of independent agricultural technology, we can have it in both ways.

“Like autonomous vehicles, the autonomy of vehicles and agricultural equipment can also be seen as an important, if not essential, agricultural goal,” said Abhisesh Silwal, a project scientist working on the agricultural robot at Carnegie Mellon. University Robotic Institute. He added that creating simple, time-consuming tasks such as pruning and harvesting, which often require skilled workers, can help stabilize over time.

Meanwhile, as researchers make drones and swarm-bots smarter, we have John Deere and his own self-propelled tractor. While it may not be good or cheap for every farmer, self-propelled machinery is pushing independent farming in many areas. And unlike TVs that can broadcast NFTs, this technology can help feed the world.

The article was first published in the newspaper Recode. Sign in here so don’t miss the next one!