Driverless tractors

20silkcut

What are your opinions on them?

What sort of timescale do ye envisage before they become a feature of farming life?

Will there be much lamenting of the old fashioned driven tractors?

My own opinion is that they will be an absolute god send. Serious labour savings and they can work day and night.
Fair enough my inner child says they take the fun out of it but in fairness driving for hours and hours in circles around a field is incredibly boring.

The sooner cars go the same way as well the better

kevthegaff

20silkcut wrote:

My own opinion is that they will be an absolute god send. Serious labour savings and they can work day and night. Fair enough my inner child says they take the fun out of it but in fairness driving for hours and hours in circles around a field is incredibly boring.

Same me, but reckon it's 20 yrs away, think their demo taxi less cars in one USA city in the coming 12-24 months. Drink driving would be eradicated also. Only negative for me is price/reliability I'd imagine

the_syco

You'd need to have someone come in and program your land into the computer. Australians would need to this every few years, as their landmass is moving slowly along!

ganmo

the_syco wrote: »

You'd need to have someone come in and program your land into the computer. Australians would need to this every few years, as their landmass is moving slowly along!

For tillage work it could be easily enough to do the first lot of fieldwork manually with subsequent jobs following the same route.

greenpetrol

the_syco wrote: »

You'd need to have someone come in and program your land into the computer. Australians would need to this every few years, as their landmass is moving slowly along!

No in fact it's just as simple as dotting the circumference of the area you want covered .same as Google land measure .

Mooooo

The young lad in front of the playstation could be useful yet ha

larthehar

http://host.madison.com/business/case-ih-debuts-driverless-tractor-to-rave-reviews/article_16e5a9c4-25e3-5706-8cec-b5a335c72322.html

Sooner than ye think!

eeguy

greenpetrol wrote: »

No in fact it's just as simple as dotting the circumference of the area you want covered .same as Google land measure .

It could be that you have a drone monitoring your fields for the best time to plant or harvest.
Drone date is taken by the tractors so your mapping is up to the hour accurate.

I don't know how they'd fare on roads, but there's a great possibility that you have an automated combine harvesting away, an automated trailer running along side and all you have to do is hitch a full trailer and drive back to the farm, while another trailer takes it's place.

So you're a supervisor to three robot workers.

20silkcut

kevthegaff wrote: »

Same me, but reckon it's 20 yrs away, think their demo taxi less cars in one USA city in the coming 12-24 months. Drink driving would be eradicated also. Only negative for me is price/reliability I'd imagine

I reckon there will be serious counter lobbying by car manufacturers. A big part of their sales pitch is driving experience and putting the boot down and the open road etc.
Yes eradication of Drink driving would be some gift to humanity and also the equally insidious sleep driving and using smart phones while driving.

eeguy

Car manufacturers are big players in pushing this technology.

Buford T. Justice XIX

the_syco wrote: »

You'd need to have someone come in and program your land into the computer. Australians would need to this every few years, as their landmass is moving slowly along!

It's more like the satellite orbits aren't fixed and could be a few inches out each year but that could be easily synchronised by fixing 3 point on farm.

tractorporn

Mooooo wrote:

The young lad in front of the playstation could be useful yet ha

The lads playing farming simulator will have the jump on the rest of us!!

Salrub

Still wouldn't trust machine over man though!!

GrasstoMilk

20silkcut wrote: »

I reckon there will be serious counter lobbying by car manufacturers. A big part of their sales pitch is driving experience and putting the boot down and the open road etc.
Yes eradication of Drink driving would be some gift to humanity and also the equally insidious sleep driving and using smart phones while driving.

Merc have launched there driverless cars.

75k for one

davidk1394

Can't see it working in Ireland. Narrow roads,small fields,drains and stones. Also if you look at the video on either the case or NH website your man is still in the same field as it's working in cutting corn. The implements on back will all have to have isobus technology because how would it know if a Coulter is blocked or a spray nozzle or even a block in a plough. I think they have a long long way to go

Reggie.

Witchcraft......burn them all

davidk1394

Reggie. wrote: »

Witchcraft......burn them all

Insure them first before you light the match !!

Noveight

They wouldn't be suited to poorer ground, nor lads working poorer ground won't have money to buy them. I doubt the technology behind a driverless tractor will be affordable.

They'd be right at home in a 30 acre field of tillage alright.