Your thoughts are the same as what I had when I viewed the CNH's autonomous tractors at Husker Harvest Days in September. To me automating a vehicle to drive down the road would be simple compared to all the little things that come up when operating a tractor and implement in the field. And, of course, an automated vehicle would still have a person right there to deal with situations that make the computer throw up its hands in failure. I was especially curious that they displayed the CaseIH tractor with a planter which is the implement that requires the most monitoring from the operator. They also talked about how the tractor could navigate on "private roads" to and from the field. How many of us have fields that are accessible without traveling on any public roads? To me the thought of automating farm equipment isn't giving the "super computer" that is located between the operator's ears enough credit. I think of all the unexpected scenarios that are encountered when operating farm equipment in the field and how each one requires different responses - to program a computer to deal with all of them safely and efficiently would be a monumental task. My "real job" involves engineering and designing farm equipment so naturally I am intrigued by the latest technologies but automomous operation in the field isn't something I foresee becoming practical for a very long time.
When viewing the CaseIH autonomous tractor at the show I was approached by one of the numerous people (all of whom happened be very attractive women, probably hired from a modeling agency) circulating the display surveying the folks who showed interest. Most of the questions on her iPad that she asked me were more about what the concept told me about CNH as a company, not directly about the machine I was looking at. I got the impression that the whole concept is more to promote CNH as cutting-edge and innovative and not necessarily that they believe this is what we'll all be farming with in the near future.
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Today's Featured Article - The Revival of a John Deere Combine - by The Red, John Fritz. For several years I had been driving by a farm house on the west side of Indianapolis that had a John Deere combine parked in high weeds in a lot behind the house. The gentleman no longer farmed because the entire area was developed with housing and light industry. I had stopped several times and knocked on the door but no one would answer. My curiosity was up and I wanted to contact the owner. I wanted to see what he planned to do with the combine.
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