John Deere boasts driverless fleet - who needs operators, anyway?

John Deere's vision of the future of farming, quarrying, and landscaping has emerged at CES 2025, and it's one that includes far fewer jobs for equipment operators and plenty more machine-driven independence. After unveiling its first autonomous tractor at CES in 2022, John Deere returned to Las Vegas to introduce four new …

[An_Old_Dog]

Truth in Advertising

John Deere told the truth. It supports customers' right to repair their John Deere device(s).

John Deere does not support customers' ability to repair their John Deere devices. And without the JD secret sauces of diagnostic repair software, data, and custom tools, customers lack the ability to repair their JD devices(s). All according to plan.

[Neil Barnes]

Re: Truth in Advertising

If you can't repair a product (or use a non-manufacturer independent to repair it) you don't own it.

If the data generated by a computer program is not in a publicly documented format, you don't own it.

If a product relies on the manufacturer maintaining a server, and the control and data protocols are not public, you don't own it.

If some artifact you think you've bought - music, books, videos etc - can be remotely disabled or deleted by the host, you don't own it.

If a product requires an on-going fee to allow its continuing use, you don't own it.

[Anonymous Coward]

So

The undocumented migrants who used to do your farm work have been deported so the only answer is to buy robotractors which might decide not to work.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: So

Luckily we were using millions of illegal immigrants to scythe wheat in the mdiwest and the robot tractors are going to pick tomatoes

[jake]

As a farmer/rancher ...

... and a mechanic, and a computer guy, may I be the first to say "Do not want!"?

But if you want your tractor mindlessly chugging along, destroying itself (and other bits of your farm) because it wasn't programmed to STOP when it ran across a particular bit of mayham ... well, be my guest. Enjoy! Have fun!

At least you can be secure in the knowledge that Deere will be happy to repair their borken kit, but only if it's still under warranty[0], and if you'll transport it to their repair facility. Diagnosing the problem will be extra, and parts are either on 6 month backorder, or no longer available (or a two dollar part is only available as part of a complete $30,000 transmission replacement-unit).

During the meanwhile, the crop you were trying to get in when the thing went haywire still needs harvesting, not that that is Deere's problem, of course.

_{[0] If you pop a cover to eyeball the problem (hoping all it needs is a simple belt or chain or shear-pin replacement ... you've a crop to get in!), the warranty is void, of course.}

[chivo243]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

A relative is a farmer, and JD isn't a topic to bring up... it isn't pretty, not one bit.

Icon for the relative!

[DS999]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

Not a farmer but know one in the area. He's got 640 acres that he rotates between corn and soybeans and plants cover crops in the winter, and he is totally comfortable letting the thing drive itself. He's usually sitting inside while it drives itself, but sometimes will get out and check something then let it catch up to him on the next lap and climb back in. He's posted a few videos on Facebook, I gotta admit it is kinda cool. Not exactly a hard problem to automatically drive within a confined area with zero obstacles, especially since he's programmed it by manually driving around the field once. According to him it follows that path exactly to within a couple cm every time, so even if there was a creek or a tree or a boulder too big to move it wouldn't be an issue.

Not sure why you think there should be a "particular bit of mayhem" in your fields you haven't previously accounted for. Maybe if a tornado passed by you might need to check it in person to be sure it is clear, or do like he does and inspect via drone. Seems reasonable to have a $100 toy fly around for a half hour before letting your half million dollar piece of equipment loose.

The cost of fixing and inability to fix yourself yes those are some issues and I guess he's accepted those downsides to have a newer model able to drive itself.

[steviebuk]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

Its controlled by GPS. Those units are expensive so here in the UK are regularly robbed. GPS fails, the thing will not stop.

[DS999]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

GPS fails, the thing will not stop

HIGHLY doubt that. I would need to see hard proof of your claim.

99.99% sure what would actually happen is that if GPS fails or gives crazy info (suddenly it is out of the boundaries it knows) it will immediately stop. Then it would only support manual drive until it is fixed.

[nobody who matters]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

<...."GPS fails, the thing will not stop"....>

That is at least partly correct - as you say, current GPS steering systems don't actually stop the machine if the GPS fails or the signal drops out, but on all the ones that I have used, loss of signal results in the sterring turning fully in one direction, so the machine will continue to go round and round in approximate circles until the driver grabs the steering wheel.

They still require a driver to turn the machine around at the end of each run, and still mostly require driver input to initiate any auxiliary functions involved in the turn (lifting/lowering the implement in or out of work, switching auxiliary power take off shafts in or out of gear etc., but these functions are usuallu set up usinmg the tractors' own headland management system and once set up for all functions usually involves a single press of a button on reaching the end of the run, and another single button press once the tractor is aligned with the next GPS A-B line (which is programmed to the working width of the implement).

Apart from watching what the machine is doing and getting off to make adjustments (or for 'anciliary' reasons ;), once it is all set up and working as it should, the modern tractor driver doesn't have a lot to do, which (particularly when working long hours) can result in becoming inattentive or asleep, and then this sort of thing happens:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDsL4CwBEL4

That incident cut off ALL electrical power to the area around Grantham in Lincolnshire for about 5 or 6 hours whilst Western Power tried to re-route power around other routes, and the affected area stretched as far as Bourne

[DS999]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

but on all the ones that I have used, loss of signal results in the sterring turning fully in one direction, so the machine will continue to go round and round in approximate circles until the driver grabs the steering wheel

Why would it do that rather than just stopping? In most cases going around in circles would be fine, but there are some cases where if it was near a drop off / creek / pond / building / fence where it decided to circle that it could cause problems depending on the direction it decided to circle in versus the "edge" of where it was supposed to be traveling. Plus if it was running fully unattended it would eventually run out of gas and would stop anyway. I see no upside to circling vs stopping. Am I missing something?

[nobody who matters]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

To be honest, just coming to a dead stop would be just as much of a pain - particularly when doing operations such as fertilizer spreading or spraying, it would need to be able to stop the spreader/sprayer before stopping the tractor.

The simple reality is that GPS isn't foolproof - EGNOS is a bit hit and miss (but free to use), but even when using a more expensive RTK system, it can still sometimes lose track of the satellites, or may hit a dead spot. It is an annoyance, but isn't really a big issue because it is only intended as a driver aid.

Autonomous machinery of the type referenced in the article will obviously need to have failsafes built in, so they do stop.

[DS999]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

I don't think having the sprayer/spreader deploying in a tight circle would be any better than having it deploy in a single spot. Plus you'd compact the hell out of the soil driving around in a circle, and if the soil was soft (common, especially for spring planting) it might end up digging itself such deep ruts it gets stuck.

[nobody who matters]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

I think you are just being obtuse.

In the example I was referring to, you do not have either result. There is a driver in the seat who will grab the steering wheel and take control (if he is awake!) when the GPS drops out and the steering suddenly turns.

I am not talking about autonomous tractors in this instance, and I can't tell you what provision JD have made for failures in their autonomous fleet, but I would hope that they have set things up differently from the way that current autosteer works. I would expect they will have been programmed to slow down and stop, disengaging any attached implement in the process.

[MachDiamond]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

"Not sure why you think there should be a "particular bit of mayhem" in your fields you haven't previously accounted for.

If a piece of the tractor or another tractor dropped off in the field, getting hit and wound up in the works of the next piece of machinery is a problem. That's something you want to detect and repair straight away. it's not something you want to notice hours on after even more damage has been done. A tornado dropping debris is a distinct possibility in the middle of the US, AKA, Tornado Alley.

You might be surprised how little you can see with a drone and you'd be all day at it with many modern farms for little return.

[nobody who matters]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

<.....".....but sometimes will get out and check something then let it catch up to him on the next lap and climb back in.".....>

In the UK, it is a serious breach of The Health and Safety at Work Act to climb off a moving machine.

[nobody who matters]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

The downvoter may not like the fact, or may disagree with it, but it is the case - climbing of a moving tractor is dangerous in the extreme, and most recently manufactured tractors will automatically shut down as soon as the driver gets off the seat for this reason.

[UnknownUnknown]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

A farm/fields seems the least likely place for self-drive.

It lacks the consistency and standards of roads, and the variety of implements, trailers and tasks … etc

AI Tractor will be more amusing than Clarkson Tractor..

[nobody who matters]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

On the contrary, it makes a lot <more> sense.

It is the idea of self driving cars on roads used by lots of other vehicles both human driven and autonomous/assisted which strikes me as stark staring crackers.

[MachDiamond]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

"It lacks the consistency and standards of roads"

And that lack of consistency is used to model the state of your fields which John Deere will happily sell back to you.

[Mark #255]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

mayham, noun:

Unexpected pig in the combine harvester

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: As a farmer/rancher ...

And then there's the possibility of somebody hacking it. Imagine the farmer discovering that the field of wheat he planted was quietly replaced by cannabis, with the harvested plants being dropped off somewhere other than his barn. And if the police find it before the farmer does, who do you think gets arrested?

[Anonymous Coward]

The prospect of a runaway AI combine brings new potential to the phrase "mowing down your enemies"...

[IGotOut]

I'm sorry.

You are only licensed to use wheat with this device.

We have detected 3 seeds of Maize in the hopper. This system will now shut down, until the appropriate license is purchased and repair is carried out to remove the unlicensed produce

[seven of five]

Re: I'm sorry.

If only.

It will end like

You are licensed for JD_Super_DeereTM_2030-05 type wheat. JD_Super_DeereTM_2030-05 has been withdrawn from market, remaing stocks are unsupported to protect your waranty. Your service contract does not cover the new, much improved JD_Super_DeereTM_2030-05a type grain, please insert credit card to order.

[MachDiamond]

Re: I'm sorry.

"We have detected 3 seeds of Maize in the hopper. This system will now shut down"

Somebody that has read "Unauthorized Bread" by Cory Doctorow.

[Boris the Cockroach]

really?

Quote

""There simply isn't enough available and skilled labor to do that work in a timely and efficient manner,"

Strange that, you could say that about the widget making business too, along with application development or any job reqired a skilled, educated and motivated workforce.

Skilled : if you need skilled workers you pay to train them

Educated: you pay to educate them too

Motivated: Pay them well and you'll be amazed how much a 'fat lazy <insert derided group> " will work.

[nobody who matters]

Re: really?

I don't know about the USA, but as far as the UK is concerned (and I have spent the last 45 years in UK farming) the reduction in the number of machine operators employed has decreased far more rapidly than the number of experienced and wannabee machine operators has. In short, there really isn't so much of a shortage of tractor drivers.

The shortages of labour in agriculture and horticulture are almost entirely within the bottom-end, minimum-wage manual jobs, principally harvesting of vegetable and flower crops (eg. brassicas, leeks and cut flowers) where the machinery manufacturers have so far failed to develop effective mechanical methods of doing so effectively, efficiently and without damage to the produce - probably in part because they have all been chasing 'the driverless tractor' vanity project.

[Philo T Farnsworth]

Killdozer!

This item puts me in mind of the classic Theodore Sturgeon story, Killdozer! (link contains spoiler plot summary).

[MachDiamond]

Tell a lie by telling the truth

The jobs that are hard to fill in agriculture are the back-breaking picking jobs that take place in the middle of summer and only pay a few groats per day. Driving a tractor is marvelous in comparison. Music playing, HVAC, sitting down in the shade and not much in the way of mental demand.

[MachDiamond]

Harvesting automation

Big harvesting of bulk crops such as grains, potatoes and legumes "could" be automated, but it's such a low margin operation that as soon as a problem is detected, a driver needs to stop and see what's wrong. An automated machine can only detect what it's configured/programmed to detect. A lot of work is being done to automate higher margin crops such as strawberries that need selection by the picker and delicate handling. Most of the work I've seen is complete automation, but I don't see why it wouldn't be bad idea to start with human supervision and some work still being done by people if the automation increases productivity and eliminates a lot of the bending and crouching that wears down a person. There's no way I could harvest a ground crop, but if a machine was doing the things I can't/shouldn't, there's no reason why I couldn't. If one machine magnifies a good worker by 6x, the worker could be paid 3x and the farmer could realize a good return on the investment. In time, the machines might become better with less need for supervision which means a single person would be able to supervise even more at one time. This also means it's more economical to harvest a field more times as crops ripen. In my garden, I get every last strawberry but that patch is only a few meters from my front door.

[druck]

Re: Harvesting automation

"the worker could be paid 3x" --->

[nobody who matters]

<........"the worker could be paid 3x...".....>

If you worked in UK agriculture, you would know why I nearly pissed myself laughing when I read that :)

[MachDiamond]

"If you worked in UK agriculture, you would know why I nearly pissed myself laughing when I read that :)"

I get it, but to supervise the machines will take more than functional lungs and a heartbeat. The person would be expected to be able to troubleshoot problems, correct them (and know when to stop) and get the machine going again if possible. You will notice I didn't say a 6-fold increase in productivity with all of the money going to the worker. If a farm manager only needs to fill a few positions rather than hundreds, there's a savings there. That also means fewer port-0-lets, less payroll accounting, etc.

[nobody who matters]

I think you misunderstand ;)

If you seriously think that most farmers will pay any higher rate of pay as a result of using technology to use one worker where previously they needed three, you clearly don't have much experience of the average farmer (and I would expect that American farmers are very similar to European farmers in this respect). Most of them are tight-fisted in extremis - almost tight enough that they squeak when they walk!

I've had over 40 years of experience and have actually gone through the experience of the workforce being reduced. Over my time farms that would have employed 10 full time men 40 years ago, now only employ one or two full time - I don't know of many cases where there has been any increase in wages for the ones who are left (other than as a result of having to work a lot more hours). Even where there has been extra pay offered, it was certainly a minute fraction of the saving i wages by making other workers redundant.

As I inferred, the idea that any farmer is going to increase the wages of any of his employees by a factor of three is hilarious. Simply not going to happen.

[nobody who matters]

No good downvoting - won't alter the inherent tightwad attitude of most farmers - in the UK we used to have an Agricultural Wages Board that set the rates for farmworkers. Whilst the rates were not especially generous, they were nonetheless reasonably decent (especially when most UK farmworkers were offered non-taxable rent and rates free housing on top of the wage). Since the Government in its wisdom saw fit to abolish the AWB for England and Wales, many farmworkers have seen their rate of pay gradually scaled back to little more then the statutory minimum wage, and most of the rest will have seen their wage increases fall short of increases in their cost of living. On top of which, very few farmers now offer a free house, and if they do, the Government now tax it as a benefit-in-kind.

As I say, the chances that any farmworker is going to see his wages suddenly increase by 2 or 3 times as a result of labour saving technology reducing the numbers of employees required or improves productivity sixfold are between slim and none-at-all.

If you think differently, then you clearly do not know much about UK farming.

<......"If a farm manager only needs to fill a few positions rather than hundreds, there's a savings there.".......>

Apart from the fact that there will not be hundreds to start with (apart from a small number of very high acreage vegetable producers in the Lincolnshire Fens, and they will be unskilled manual workers so s self driving machine isn't going to have much impact anyway), what it will mean in practise is 'there's more money for the farmers pocket there'. Most farmers are no different from the bosses of big corporations in that respect ;)

[MachDiamond]

"As I inferred, the idea that any farmer is going to increase the wages of any of his employees by a factor of three is hilarious. Simply not going to happen."

If you've reduced your headcount by 6 and only had to pay the remaining 3x more, that's a pretty good gain for the farmer. As the technology improves, there will be need for even fewer workers, but the ones left will have to be much more competent with very good electrical and mechanical skills. Given the choice of working in the middle of farm country or a nice desk job in a town for the same pay, many will take the town job. An uneducated picker that's lucky to have been in school until age 12 has to take the jobs they can get which aren't desk jobs out of the weather.

[nobody who matters]

No, they won't. The increasing use of technology to control the machines already means that any idiot off the street can operate a tractor and whatever implement it is hitched to, where those of us who started the job 30 or 40+ years ago had to learn the skills to make it all work (and the mechanical skills needed to repair things when they broke).

Cut to now, and increasingly it is only possible for a dealer technician to do many repairs in my experience because most repairs seem to be concerned with the various electronic systems and require skills which are not available on farm. Farmers are increasingly employing non-skilled non-agriculturally orientated workers and paying the dealers for the costly skilled technicians when they are needed.. There is also a trend for leasing machinery along with extended service contracts under which all servicing and repairs are covered by the contract with the dealer, so the farm has little need for expensive trained/experienced/skilled labour.

I've been doing the job on-farm since the start of the 1980s, I've watched it happening, and suffered the consequences having three times been made redundant in favour of the farms concerned employing cheaper unskilled staff.

[nobody who matters]

Keep downvoting all you like, it won't change the situation.

You appear to have very little knowledge of understanding of the subject. Perhaps not surprising, because there a lot of farmers who don't seem to understand farming.

[johnrobyclayton]

Automated Soylent Green Harvesting

Need I say more?

[nobody who matters]

Re: Automated Soylent Green Harvesting

I don't know.

What were you trying to say to start with?

[MachDiamond]

Re: Automated Soylent Green Harvesting

No need to say more. I'll see you later at Carrousel unless you decide to run and wind up in Box's cold storage.