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The challenge of getting documented farm labor in rural areas is massive and we face that ourselves, and tractor software lock-in is neither a potential exacerb

The challenge of getting documented farm labor in rural areas is massive and we face that ourselves, and tractor software lock-in is neither a potential exacerbating factor nor a potential future solution to this problem. Not sure if I understand your question?

SECProto 7y ago
I'm picturing self-driving tractors as a labour-saver during the busiest time of year (haying). It would be a relatively simple technical problem to solve, and I could see manufacturers going for the market (and locking down the system at the same time - same as Tesla and Deere).
- leroy_masochist 7y ago
  Automated anything for farms tends to work a lot better on plots of land that are large and flat as a pancake. I'm no autonomous vehicle expert but if you're haying irregularly shaped fields with topographical variation and ideosyncratic hazards (e.g., soft ground, ruts, random trees in fields, etc) then building an automated solution is a lot harder than an autopilot for a combine that works a bunch of perfectly flat, mile-by-mile plots in Nebraska. If you're haying a small factory farm, driving the tractor is a small fraction of the labor; you're also moving the hay from fields to barn in a trailer and then stacking hay with either humans, a tractor, or a skid-steer. All of this might eventually get automated a la the recent news on Amazon factories, but we're probably (at least) a few years away from that.
  - SECProto 7y ago
    > building an automated solution is a lot harder than an autopilot for a combine that works a bunch of perfectly flat, mile-by-mile plots in Nebraska Absolutely, and I don't expect it to be a thing for a decade(s) - until after it's a solved issue on roads and/or the large, flat plots out west. > If you're haying a small factory farm, driving the tractor is a small fraction of the labor I agree. However, it's also (in my limited experience) the most weather dependent part - there's usually a short weather window to get it cut, dried, and baled - and having an extra set of (self-driving wheels) would be beneficial. > All of this might eventually get automated a la the recent news on Amazon factories, but we're probably (at least) a few years away from that. Definitely agree.
  - leroy_masochist 7y ago
    That was supposed to read small family farm, not small factory farm. Oops
- jdmichal 7y ago
  > It would be a relatively simple technical problem to solve... Philosophical aside: Has this statement ever actually been true?
  - pferde 7y ago
    I said that two or three times at work just today, where something technically trivial (set a Linux sysctl tunable or adjust some application parameter) would be at the end of a long bureaucratic adventure and difficult convincing of people who set those parameters incorrectly earlier, and thus would have to admit that they were wrong. :)
  - SECProto 7y ago
    hey, I never said relative to what!

SECProto 7y ago

I'm picturing self-driving tractors as a labour-saver during the busiest time of year (haying). It would be a relatively simple technical problem to solve, and I could see manufacturers going for the market (and locking down the system at the same time - same as Tesla and Deere).

leroy_masochist 7y ago
Automated anything for farms tends to work a lot better on plots of land that are large and flat as a pancake. I'm no autonomous vehicle expert but if you're haying irregularly shaped fields with topographical variation and ideosyncratic hazards (e.g., soft ground, ruts, random trees in fields, etc) then building an automated solution is a lot harder than an autopilot for a combine that works a bunch of perfectly flat, mile-by-mile plots in Nebraska. If you're haying a small factory farm, driving the tractor is a small fraction of the labor; you're also moving the hay from fields to barn in a trailer and then stacking hay with either humans, a tractor, or a skid-steer. All of this might eventually get automated a la the recent news on Amazon factories, but we're probably (at least) a few years away from that.
- SECProto 7y ago
  > building an automated solution is a lot harder than an autopilot for a combine that works a bunch of perfectly flat, mile-by-mile plots in Nebraska Absolutely, and I don't expect it to be a thing for a decade(s) - until after it's a solved issue on roads and/or the large, flat plots out west. > If you're haying a small factory farm, driving the tractor is a small fraction of the labor I agree. However, it's also (in my limited experience) the most weather dependent part - there's usually a short weather window to get it cut, dried, and baled - and having an extra set of (self-driving wheels) would be beneficial. > All of this might eventually get automated a la the recent news on Amazon factories, but we're probably (at least) a few years away from that. Definitely agree.
- leroy_masochist 7y ago
  That was supposed to read small family farm, not small factory farm. Oops
jdmichal 7y ago
> It would be a relatively simple technical problem to solve... Philosophical aside: Has this statement ever actually been true?
- pferde 7y ago
  I said that two or three times at work just today, where something technically trivial (set a Linux sysctl tunable or adjust some application parameter) would be at the end of a long bureaucratic adventure and difficult convincing of people who set those parameters incorrectly earlier, and thus would have to admit that they were wrong. :)
- SECProto 7y ago
  hey, I never said relative to what!