John Deere has revealed an autonomous farm tractor that can work in the field on its own 24 hours a day. Revealed at CES 2022, the 8R tractor will go into production this year.
Agriculture is being transformed with the help of modernization now. One example of this is the modern tractor, which has evolved from a simple engine used to pull plows into an advanced vehicle that has a climate-controlled cabin that looks like a cross between a luxury SUV and a private jet flight deck and has all manner of technologies, including GPS, self-driving systems, artificial intelligence, and infinitely variable transmissions.
There are also some semi-autonomous tractors in the market. Now, John Deere has brought an autonomous tractor in the form of the 410-bhp 8R. It is not the world’s first autonomous tractor. Smaller ones have been built for special applications, but this is one of the first large general-purpose models aimed at large-scale production.
The tractor designed will follow a very specific and precise path. Also, it will carry out precise tasks as it goes to prepare the soil, plow, plant, and harvest, and it has to be able to alter its behavior to suit specific crops, soil types, and weather conditions.
According to John Deere, the robotic tractor will reduce labor costs and relieve farmers from having to sit in a cab for up to 18 hours a day. Instead, it can operate 24 hours a day to take advantage of good weather or get harvests in quickly. Farmers can focus, monitor, and adjust the tractor from a handheld device installed with a mobile app that displays live video and real-time relevant data.
The 8R has six pairs of stereo cameras combined with machine learning that process images in milliseconds to give it all-around obstacle detection. If there is anything unusual in its path, the tractor can assess the situation and either keep moving or stop and request assistance. As the machine moves, it plots its position relative to a geofence for a claimed accuracy of within an inch.
The price of the vehicle is yet to be announced.