Your autonomous tractor or autonomous retrofit kit in our buyers’guide?

For the third consecutive year, Future Farming is compiling an overview of systems that can automate a tractor. Systems that make existing tractors autonomous. The technology enables you to take the driver off the tractor when allowed and where possible, while still being able to drive the tractor to the next field manually.

Financially attractive upgrade

It also enables farmers to hold on to existing tractors without having to invest in the newest tractor models and still step up technology wise. Especially now, with high prices for new tractors, severe price increases and long delivery times. In fact, some believe that upgrading existing tractors to autonomous self-driving tractors might be preferred by farmers over investing in field robots.

We currently have 6 autonomous retrofit kits listed in the buyers’ guide and will at least add 1 or 2 others that our editors came across last year. For the record, with autonomous we mean that the vehicle can perform its work completely independently and autonomously after the operator gave all the necessary instructions and settings.

The autonomous tractor should in principle be able to execute the same type of work and operations a standard tractor with a driver does. For this catalogue, we are not targeting autosteer, auto guidance or autopilot systems or kits that ‘only’ take over the vehicle steering from the driver and no other functions such as hitch and PTO control and obstacle detection.

Help complete our catalogue of autonomous tractors

Whether you call them autonomous tractors, driverless tractors or self-driving tractors, there must be more brands and tractor types commercially available than Monarch Tractor and Yanmar. John Deere and Kubota for instance also launched their specific models but these are either not commercially available (yet) or solely in the country of origin. In some occasions, the manufacturer doesn’t want to reveal the (technical) details we require which means we can’t include them in the catalogue.

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Help create a complete overview

Alike all currently available buyers’ guides, the autonomous tractors catalogue is to provide farmers and contractors across the world an independent and objective overview of available autonomous tractors. Self-driving tractors that are up for sale or rent and that are capable of doing the tough work farmers expect from their existing tractors and tractor drivers.

For the record, with autonomous, we mean that the tractor can perform its work completely independently after the operator has set it up to work. The autonomous tractor should be able to execute the same type of work and operations a standard tractor with driver can. Regardless of how the tractor is powered (electrically, with a combustion engine or hybrid) and with or without a cab. And with a tractor, we mean a tractor, not a field robot or self-propelled machine.