John Deere has been steadily increasing the amount of autonomous vehicles and technology that it offers, all as part of its effort to reduce the amount of strain that is placed on the scarce number of skilled labourers in the agriculture sector. As part of this movement, the machine-maker took to CES 2025 to present its latest autonomous innovations.
There were four major announcements to talk about, two of which are tractors, one a dump truck, and the last being an electric mower. For the tractors, the first is the Autonomous 9RX Tractor that is designed for large-scale agriculture by enabling farmers to focus less on minor tasks and more on major challenges. It does this by utilising 16 cameras arranged in a 360-degree view to allow the tractor to take on tasks safely and while travelling at a faster speed than its predecessor.
The other tractor is the Autonomous 5ML Orchard Tractor that as the name suggests is designed for work in dense orchards. It uses Lidar sensors to plot its movement and is capable of showering crops with necessary substances to protect them, taking the repetitive job out of farmers' hands.
The 460 P-Tier Autonomous Articulated Dump Truck is meant for quarry work, specifically transporting material around quarries without needing a human driver. Then lastly is the Autonomous Battery Electric Mower, which is a commercial product that uses the same technology as John Deere's larger vehicles except on a reduced scale, resulting in two cameras on the front, left, rear, and right to create a 360-degree view to trim grass and lawns without a hitch or necessary human intervention.
The release plans for each product has not been affirmed by John Deere as of yet.