Deere Goes Driverless Beyond Midwest Farms to Ease Labor Crunch
- Agricultural equipment giant unveils autonomous fleet in Vegas
- Machines to help growers facing fewer laborers, greater demand
A John Deere autonomous orchard tractor during a November preview event.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Deere & Co., which has already introduced driverless plows to farm fields in the Midwest, now wants to bring autonomous machines to orchards, quarries and grassy lawns to help ease a tight labor market.
The world leader in agriculture equipment unveiled its new autonomous fleet at the CES trade show in Las Vegas on Monday. The machines, painted in Deere’s iconic green and yellow, are designed to handle some of the hardest-to-fill jobs on the work site, from the seemingly endless spraying of fruit and nut trees to hauling massive rocks in dump trucks.