[eschneider]

That's a solved problem with precision guided, self-steering tractors. They also remember where they planted crops so they won't roll over plants later.

There's a lot of interesting stuff going on in agtech, most of it is practical, too. But yeah, guidance add-ons to a farmer's existing equipment has a pretty good return on investment for the farmer.

[dbcurtis]

That’s an overly simplistic assertion. It depends on the crop, how it is planted, and maturity.

There is a soy bean pest that can invade crops on my family’s farm. If treatment is needed early, the cost effective solution is to drive a spray rig. Later in the season, that causes too much crop damage. So then it becomes a calculation of the loss due to pest versus cost of arial application.

In the end, it all comes down to cost per acre and the benefit needs to exceed that.

[Loughla]

How tight are your rows that a high-boy or low-boy can't fit between them? When I still farmed, We sprayed late season crops with one of the two of those, with spray control to the square foot. That and auto steer meant we damaged about 40 plants total going into the end rows and out.

[AShyFig]

This future is a lot closer than most people think, but is hardly a solved problem.

-posted from my self driving tractor.

[viraptor]

You're still not gaining much, right? You're just not losing what's already planted, but you could still plant more if you didn't have to drive in the first place - or do I misunderstand the precision driving?

[bguebert]

That might be for some crops, but some like wheat are planted too close together to drive anything between them without knocking some down.