Future Farming | Driverless Tractors

6 Jan

Smartphones and tractors turning over new earth in self-drive fields

The place where one of 2022’s biggest AI innovations is being felt is… a farm? Yes, you read right: self-driving tractors are now a thing – and they’re set to be a very good thing for agriculture around the world, driven by both a labour shortage and a push to reduce the environmental footprint.

pull over, Tesla:  John Deere goes driverless

Automated cars conjure up images of Silicon Valley, Elon Musk’s broad smile, and the new tech elite – but this year, farmers are staking their claim on driverless cool.

John Deere – one of the world’s foremost agricultural equipment makers – has been tweaking its assisted driving technology for years. In 2022, it’s finally ready to let farmers release the wheel and leave the driving to AI.

  • The fully autonomous tractor combines John Deere’s existing GPS-assisted steering tech with machine learning features that let the vehicle drive itself.
  • Farmers will be able to “track the tractor” using their smartphones while it carries out ploughing and seeding tasks remotely.
  • The company will still include a human element in the functioning of the vehicle. Obstacles that the AI can’t detect will be shared remotely from the tractor’s camera with human support agents for verification.

After years of GPS tech development, John Deere seems to have found a way to engineer farmers out of the driver’s seat and free their time up for more productive farm management tasks.

fewer safety worries on a farm

Unlike driverless cars that pose a potential threat to fellow road users, autonomous tractors often operate on large commercial farms where the nearest vehicle is hundreds of meters away.

As a result, manufacturers are able to focus less on driverless lane changing and just-in-time braking, and focus their R&D efforts on building a tractor that ploughs straight with no hands on the wheel.

going high tech on your farm? you need cloud storage!

Agriculture is big business, and if your farm is investing in a more data-driven way of farming in 2022, you’ll want to consider a secure cloud storage solution to keep your data safe.

Contact us today to learn more about cloud storage and how it can benefit your business.

Comments are closed.