John Deere revealed several new autonomous machines that build Building on Deere’s autonomous technology first revealed in 2022. The company’s second-generation autonomy kit combines advanced computer vision, AI, and cameras to help the machines navigate their environments.

Autonomy Expanding to More Machines

• Autonomous 9RX Tractor: The second-generation autonomy kit features 16 individual cameras arranged in pods to enable a 360-degree view of the field. The advanced autonomy kit also calculates depth more accurately at larger distances, allowing the tractor to pull more equipment and drive faster.

Autonomous 5ML Orchard Tractor: Featuring the latest autonomy kit with added Lidar sensors to address the dense canopies found in orchards, the initial machine will be offered with a diesel engine. A battery electric tractor of comparable size and capacity to existing diesel 5M/ML models on the market today will follow.

460 P-Tier Autonomous Articulated Dump Truck (ADT): Using the second-generation kit, the ADT is able to handle the repetitive tasks of transporting material. 

Autonomous Battery Electric Mower: The autonomous commercial mower leverages the same camera technology as other Deere autonomous machines, but on a reduced scale since the machine has a smaller footprint. With two cameras on the front, left, right, and rear, 360-degree coverage is achieved.

Select machines will be autonomy ready from the factory and the second-generation perception system will be available as a retrofit kit for certain existing machines, providing customers with multiple paths to adoption based on where they are in their technology journey.

The machines are managed via John Deere Operations Center Mobile, the company’s cloud-based platform. By swiping left to right to start, the machine can be started once placed in the appropriate spot. 

Through the app, users also have access to live video, images, data and metrics, and the ability to adjust various factors like speed. In the event of any job quality anomalies or machine health issues, users will be notified remotely so they can make necessary adjustments.