Driverless tractors and produce pickers are happening. One tech-obsessed farmer discusses his investment in human-less farm equipment. Even the abysmally low wages paid to migrant farmworkers amount to a big expense for agribusinesses large and small. This article is mostly about technology applied to strawberry picking that can track the fruit's development, mimic how a human harvests the fruit, and package it on the spot.
That might make a vacation at an organic farm much less charming.
Trucking without truckers
The trucking industry has the same issue as the farms in terms of the high cost of drivers. Mercedes-Benz already has a driverless truck prototype. This will take driverless commercial vehicles from the warehouse to the roads. The article also discusses small machines that will autonomously traverse sidewalks to deliver packages to our doors without a human involved at all.
So many snarky comments possible with that news. I hope those little machines are not equipped with cameras and that they are designed for easy navigation with pedestrians.
Michigan wants to lead
The University of Michigan is taking the advent of driverless vehicles, and robotics generally, very seriously, with a center for autonomous technology to be located right by the autonomous vehicle testing grounds.
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