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I have a friend that services and repairs combine harvesters for a living. He tells me that he rarely has to do any welding or heavy lifting any more because th
by nextweek2 10y ago
I have a friend that services and repairs combine harvesters for a living. He tells me that he rarely has to do any welding or heavy lifting any more because the reliability and mechanics of the machines have become very reliable.
He's spends most of his time diagnosing on-board electronics. Which he says is the root of the discord with farmers. They think of their tractor like a hoe, you plonk it in the ground and get going. Where as the modern farm tractor or combine is actually a complex set of computer systems with literally thousands of sensors.
Farmers see the manufacturer as trying to extort on-going revenue, whereas manufacturers are trying to provide a new generation of smart farming. Getting 1 cm precision of sowing and fertiliser spreading is the innovation that the technology is delivering. The problem is that nobody wants to pay for that ongoing data processing.
This is going to happen with cars as well. It seems to me that people should rent/lease rather than buy because of this constant need for updates and servicing.
- davidgrenier 10y agoIf nobody's willing to buy it then it means there's no market for them to sell that offering. Their strategy will alienate their consumer base which hopefully would make room for other businesses to thrive where there's an actual market (the hoe they plonk in the ground).
- fps 10y agoRenting/Leasing doesn't help, because the real cost of failures that can't be fixed is time. Crops need to be harvested in a small window of time, and if your tractor is broken due to a software bug that you're not allowed to fix yourself, and that you're not allowed to hire a third party repair shop that's "unauthorized" by the manufacturer, and the wait for an authorized repair service is weeks, you've lost your entire season's revenue. As expensive as these tractors are, the cost is insignificant compared to the revenue they generate when they're operating.
- tim333 10y agoBuying has a lot of advantages. My computer and phone need updates too and I buy those. I don't see the problem with being able to buy a gadget and install software on it.