I’ve heard that, though tractors have been effectively self-driving for a while now, farmers still want to be in the cab because they enjoy being involved in the process. I suppose big agribusinesses don’t care about that, though.

Originally shared by Wayne Radinsky

“The first fully autonomous ground vehicles hitting the market aren’t cars or delivery trucks — they’re ­robo­-farmhands. The Dot Power Platform is a prime example of an explosion in advanced agricultural technology, which Goldman Sachs predicts will raise crop yields 70 percent by 2050. But Dot isn’t just a tractor that can drive without a human for backup. It’s the Transformer of ag-bots, capable of performing 100-plus jobs, from hay baler and seeder to rock picker and manure spreader, via an ­arsenal of tool modules. And though the hulking machine can carry 40,000 pounds, it navigates fields with balletic precision.”

That’s pretty breathless. Let’s see if it can live up to that. I think it may need humans in the loop.

https://www.wired.com/story/dot-power-autonomous-farming/