John Deere has announced two new self-driving agricultural machines, the Autonomous 9RX Tractor for large-scale agriculture and the Autonomous 5ML Orchard Tractor for air blast spraying.
Both machines were on display at John Deere’s CES 2025 booth, held at the Las Vegas Convention Centre from January 7-10, highlighting potential solutions to skilled labour shortages.
“Our agriculture, construction, and commercial landscaping customers all have work that must get done at certain times of the day and year, yet there is not enough available and skilled labour to do the work,” John Deere chief technology officer Jahmy Hindman says.
“Autonomy can help address this challenge, that’s why we’re extending our technology stack to enable more machines to operate safely and autonomously in unique and complex environments.
“This will not only benefit our customers, but all of us who rely on them to provide the food, fuel, fibre, infrastructure, and landscaping care that we depend on every day.”
Building on John Deere’s autonomous technology first revealed at CES 2022, the company’s second-generation autonomy kit combines advanced computer vision, AI, and cameras to help the machines navigate their environments.
The Autonomous 9RX Tractor features 16 individual cameras arranged in pods to enable a 360-degree view of the paddock, allowing farmers to focus on other jobs while the machine carries out its own work.
John Deere adds that the advanced autonomy kit calculates depth more accurately at larger distances, allowing the tractor to pull more equipment and drive faster.
The Autonomous 5ML Orchard Tractor features the latest autonomy kit with added Lidar sensors to address the dense canopies found in orchards.
John Deere says the initial machine will be offered with a diesel engine, while a battery electric tractor of comparable size and capacity to existing diesel 5M/ML models on the market today will follow.
Both machines are managed via John Deere Operations Centre Mobile, the company’s cloud-based platform. Through the app, users also have access to live video, images, data and metrics, and the ability to adjust various factors like speed.