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OK Panhandle | I don't think the autonomy stuff is quite mature enough yet. I've seen the Raven Autonomy grain cart and Dot platforms, and as cool as they are, there is A LOT of babysitting you have to do.
With the grain cart, once I get past the "new, shiny-object" factor, I have trouble figuring out where it adds that next level of efficiency. There are still a lot of limitations, like someone has to unload it into the truck and drive it down the road to the next field. If your fields are small, you might spend more time moving equipment and staging everything than it's worth.
With Dot, someone MUST be in the field with it. You can't just start it and run off to do something else. You have to keep in mind that it was designed for Canadian broadacre farming, so it likes wide, gentle turns and plenty of room to maneuver. If your fields are small or irregularly-shaped, it probably won't be an amazing experience for you.
The engineers will get the issues worked out, and I know there are other companies working on products too, so I'm not picking on Raven. I just think if you make the leap into "autonomous" equipment, you need to be comfortable on the bleeding edge. | |
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self driving or robotic equipment
