IT's call automation and it's been coming for years. It's not aimed at making farmers bigger, it's aimed at long term savings in not having to have employees. Lot of the big grain guys find a good worker who is a good operator and pay them year round to keep them. If they only keep them for the growing season they have to find new ones and train them in the spring. Self driving tractor eliminates that problem. Plus in these times with current prices farmers have to minimize expenses wherever possible to stay profitable.
Now I watched this vid a few weeks ago. They are not saying the tractor can drive itself on the road. Only on farm on pre established tracts to go field to field.
Companies have been going to very expensive robotics for years for the same reason. I remember watching a tape of the JD plant making tractor cab frames around 1980. Cutting of metal, placing in a jig and the welding was all done robotically. I don't recall how many workers it eliminated but it was a bunch because this thing was fast enough that it replaced several teams to produce the same amount of frames.
If you think about it, way back when a tractor and plow replaced a couple of mules or horses one man and one plow. Bigger tractors replaced two tractors, one operator and one plow.
Anyone ever see the old original towed by horse road graders? One man driving the team and 2 or 3 guys running the blade. Or earth moving? Couple hundred people with picks, shovels and wheel barrows moving dirt? Replaced today by one man on a D8 Cat. Getting more done with less expense? Not real good for the workers but once one company does it the others have to or close their doors. Either way workers loose jobs. One way some, the other all.
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