The Cnh Industrial group has developed the world's first self-driving tractor, in addition to plowing it connects to the Internet to monitor weather conditions
As long as the tractor is going, let it go. No, we haven't misinterpreted Orietta Berti's famous song, but this is the scenario that awaits us in the fields in a few years, thanks to the invention of the first self-driving tractor. The autonomous tractor, in addition to moving the earth, receives data about the weather through an Internet connection, and based on these data it can make a decision. For example, if it is aware of a possible thunderstorm, it can decide to postpone the work or speed it up in order to finish it before the rain arrives. The tractor for agriculture 4.0 has been developed by the brand Case Ih, of the Cnh Industrial group. At the moment it is only a concept and we will not see it immediately on the market, but during its presentation in Monthyon, north of Paris, it has been a great success. So much so that from 2018 it will be tested by some farmers.
Autonomous and powerful
Matthew Foster, vice president of Case Ih, said the company's goal is to launch the self-driving tractor on the market by 2020. Despite not requiring a human driver the tractor is very large and has a lot of power. In fact, it is an autonomous version of Case Ih's Magnum, a 370-horsepower machine. To avoid obstacles, such as stones or animals, the tractor has a series of sensors and cameras that are used to avert accidents. As for the proximity sensors, they are the same present in Tesla's car and in the self-driving prototypes developed in the past also by Google. And what will the farmer have to do while the tractor is working? Simple, he will be able to monitor everything through the appropriate application for tablet.
Efficiency
We said that the tractor can do much more than plowing a land and manage the work according to the climate. And in fact, before starting work, the tractor makes a tour of inspection of the field to analyze the best route to follow to optimize the use of fuel and pesticides. Due to its large size, the tractor is currently not ideal for Italian crops, at least not for family-run or medium-sized ones. It is instead designed for large crops in the United States and Australia. Even though the company says it is already working on a new concept inspired by Italian vineyards. The information acquired by the tractor will be processed by agronomists and sent to banks and insurance companies for the calculation of the quotation on agricultural commodities.