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 - Women and Tractors - More Views From the Farmer's Wife - by Teri Burkholder. The top ten reasons why the judges wouldn't let you participate in the stock antique tractor pull: Hey, this is stock! It came with that V8 in it! That "R" on my tires stands for "really old" not radial! Blue gas? We thought it was a pretty color! What wire hooked to my throttle?
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