Formerly NE North Dakota, now NW MN | Reliability is a must. Farms have much less redundancy built in these days. We're more "efficient", but as Nassim Taleb illustrates, that makes us much more susceptible to unforeseen events (breakdowns).
Software is not a sideshow, and should not be treated as one. Deere historically has been good about making stuff plug n play and to some degree backward compatible. They've also been pretty good at fixing bugs. For whatever reason I feel like for the last year or so that culture has started to fade a bit and they are starting to throw more shovel-ware out the door. Also AMS should really work more collaboratively with the tractor (and all the other equipment) engineers. Plug N Play, adaptability, and compatibility have been deere's strength and I hope they don't give that up. Right now I have enough GPS systems for about half of my equipment in the fall, but because we can move it around, and it functions correctly and sets up quickly, I'm married to deere tractors and combines. If that goes away, If I can't move activations and gps equipment from one piece of machinery to another (combine to tractor to sprayer and back again), all of a sudden I become color blind. If I have to have a dedicated controller for my sprayers, I may as well have a Trimble, at least Trimble can share coverage data wirelessly (just an example).
I don't understand why they don't give us better access to diagnostic codes. There should be an online directory with in depth explanations of what error codes mean.
Cabless, operatorless tractors are a joke in broad-acre agriculture, IMHO. The equipment is too big, too expensive and the crops are worth too much. Our operators are actually going to have to be more skilled in the future, not less. Skilled is maybe not the right word, because I doubt anyone will be able to drive as straight as the guys who farmed from the 70's to the 90's. Trained maybe. Anyways, we're at least 15 years away from autonomy being acceptable.
Autonomy MIGHT be acceptable on a much smaller scale however. I've often dreamed of taking a Tyko hovercraft, teaching it to recognize Tall Water Hemp or Marestail, strapping a GPS on it, teach it to run between 22" rows, and putting a Dr. Evil style Laser on it. Turn it loose in your field in the spring. |
What would you say to John Deere's tractor engineers?
