Self-Driving Tractor Can Be Controlled Using Smartphones, Will Driverless Equipment Become New Trend?

The future of farming is here. John Deere, a giant equipment company, recently unveiled its first driverless tractor that allows farmers to control them using a smartphone and run 24 hours a day. They showcased their new vehicle that adapted the design of the 8R tractor during the first day of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas on January 5.

Some farmers have already tried the driverless tractor since 2019 to test its capability. It was touted as a solution to tackle staffing shortages and to feed the world.

John Deere's Driverless Tractor is Riding Solo

The 44,000-pound driverless tractor from John Deere is the company's first fully autonomous tractor. Minnesota farmer Doug Nimz told CNet that he was one of the first people to try it out as his farm served as a testing ground to allow the company's engineers to modify the equipment.

Nimz said that it took him a while to get comfortable on the machine and recalled how awed he was at first of the autonomous process of the tractor. Although he was a little suspicious of driverless technology, he was also "very, very interested" in it and eventually allowed the testing.

The emergence of fully automated farming equipment offers a twist in farming, especially when workers are in short supply and younger people move into the cities. Experts have seen automation as the answer to ensure enough food would be grown to feed the world.

John Deere chief technology officer Jahmy Hindman said that the driverless tractor is a way to get the job done on time and do it at a high quality. This was a technology that is 20 years in the making.

What Makes the Driverless Tractor Fully Automated?

John Deere said that the new farming equipment could be controlled using a smartphone while the farmer is in a remote office. Mail Online reported that the driverless tractor comes with six pairs of cameras, GPS and uses artificial intelligence (AI) to check its position and detect whether an animal or object is in its path.

So when the tractor is in the field, the farmer can swipe on his smartphone the commands to make the driverless tractor work without being physically in there. The technology also till the area to plant the seeds in a straight line.

Its first version was equipped with a plow and is said to be available in the US this year, but no exact date yet as to when it will be available outside the country. For now, John Deere said that they are planning to install other farming tasks and that the automated tilling can be installed on an existing tractor within one day.

They have not yet announced the pricing for the tractor's autonomous system, estimated to cost 10% of the equipment cost, which is about $50,000 when it becomes available in the market.

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