Recent disruptive technologies including auto guidance have seen growth start with aftermarket systems
When auto guidance appeared on the scene, it was grassroots demand from producers and aftermarket system suppliers that pushed the technology forward.
As autonomy becomes the latest disruptive technology in ag equipment, Seth Crawford, Agco’s senior vice-president and general manager, precision ag and digital, said he sees it becoming mainstream in the same way auto guidance did.
“For those of us old enough to remember, in the early days of guidance, you couldn’t actually put guidance systems on some brands of equipment. There were cease and desist letters sent from OEMs to guidance companies. Now that’s all behind us. There are agreements, requirements and things in place that have enabled that. And I think we’re going to see that going forward (with autonomy).”
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The success of the retrofit approach that drove auto guidance is part of the reason Agco has chosen to begin introducing autonomous technology to the market in essentially the same way, through retrofit kits.
“If you think about how guidance grew, it didn’t grow because the OEMs said, ‘we’re going to deliver guidance,’ ” said Agco chief executive officer Eric Hansotia.
“It grew through the retrofit business. Farmers would buy the machine and add guidance on. The guidance was way better for them, and it grew. Then the OEMs said, ‘OK, let’s make it easy and do it from the factory.’ We think autonomy is going to be the same way.”
Agco’s first autonomy retrofit kit, which is due out next year, will not be restricted to just Agco’s own machines. It will eventually be compatible with a range of makes and models. For the initial launch, the brand has decided to include its own Fendt brand tractors and 2014 and newer John Deere 8R tractors.
However, because digital lockouts have hampered some short-line manufacturers from matching attachments to some major brand machines, will restricted CANBus access hurt Agco’s efforts to include equipment from other brands in its retrofit kits?
While such reluctance from original equipment manufacturers to allow digital access has hampered technology adoption in the past, it has been overcome, particularly with auto guidance as well as data access and transfer.
“For sure, there are efforts to lock out,” acknowledges Crawford.
“The big factor here is farmers won’t stand for it. That’s how we got the data exchanges going. I think that’s what’s going to drive the interoperability.”
Hansotia believes the timing of autonomous introduction depends on two factors:
The least complex tasks will be the first to go autonomous.
Farmers’ willingness to let go of the task.
“Where are they going to feel comfortable giving up control? With tillage, if I get it wrong, I can go back there and do it again. I can fix it. With a grain cart, there’s not a lot of risk there either. If I get planting wrong, there’s nothing I can do to catch that up. So we see planting at the back end of the evolution, not because of technology, but because of farmer confidence.”
Another advantage of retrofitting systems is it allows producers to keep the original functionality of tractors, allowing them to operate on their own or in the usual way with an operator in the seat.
“People don’t want to buy a tractor with no cab on it that can only do autonomy,” Crawford says.
“This is going to be something the farmer is going to want to step their way into and say, ‘I’’d like it to be able to do autonomy for some of my tasks, but for other tasks it wasn’t designed to do autonomously, I want to be able to use my tractor.’ ”
As autonomous field operations become market ready, producers will still have to plan on getting autonomous machines to the field the old-fashioned way.
“In the industry, no one is talking about autonomous vehicles on the road,” says Hansotia.
“So no matter what you do, you have to use the road to get (to fields). So for the foreseeable future, driving on the road will not be autonomous. We’re just not going to tackle the road problem for the fist several years. Legislation will tackle it with automotive and we’ll see where it goes.”
