John Deere has been in business for nearly 200 years.
Heck, even city folk whove never seen a tractor that wasnt on a television screen know John Deere.
The companys so popular even celebrities such asAshton Kutcher and George Clooneyhave been known to rock a Deere hat.
Watch out Silicon Valley
John Deeres been heavily-invested in robotics and autonomy for decades.
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The company then partnered withnone other than NASAto create the worlds first internet-based GPS tracking system.
Automation is par for the course at John Deere.
But the recent shift toautonomyhas the company positioned to be an important fixture in the AI technology sector.
Heraud explained that John Deere approachedartificial intelligencetechnology from two angles:
Theres automation, making machines achieve superhuman performance.
And autonomy, making vehicles driverless.
Farmers have long relied on Deeres automation technologies the superhuman machines Heraud mentioned.
It sounds like a simple problem, but nobody wants to spray an entire field with pesticide.
And sending humans out to weed thousands of acres by hand is incredibly cost and labor-prohibitive.
On the other side, is autonomy and John Deeres fascinating driverless tractors.
Its not just driver assistance … the farmer can go and do something else.
They can leave the cab and operate everything from an app.
Heraud described the issue as critical.
But the companys ambitions dont end there.
The futureof farming, as John Deere calls it, will apparently be a robotic revolution.
