After Autonomous Cars, Here Comes Autonomous Tractors

From the past few months, autonomous cars have taken center stage in global automotive industry. With all the major players in automotive industry busy with developing their autonomous-cars, we were pretty sure someone would soon tap into the agricultural sector too.

Italian based agricultural machinery firm, New Holland, have taken the autonomous technology into a new level by developing a concept tractor, with autonomous driving technology.

The concept tractor, dubbed the NHDrive, is based on the standard Power Ranger Blue, and looks like any other normal tractor.

The NHDrive tractor, is a fully autonomous tractor, which can be controlled from farmers tablet or desktop. This allows the farmer to control the tractor from any location. Pre-mapped private paths enables the tractor to move around the farm. After reaching the desired location, tractor can perform its tasks on command.

The tractor is equipped with four live cameras, two at front and two at rear. It also has a screen to show the progress of work in the field. An additional screen can also be installed, which shows key elements, such as, engine speed, fuel level, seeding rate and coulter downforce.

New Holland claims that, tractor can autonomously seed the next crop, straight behind the combine. The tractor can work 24 hours and 7 days a week. The autonomous tractor was developed in collaboration with, CNH Industrial and Autonomous Solution Incorporated.

The concept tractor was revealed in Farm Progress Show on August 30.