Supporting our growing planet
The world’s population is expected to grow from 8 billion people to nearly 10 billion by 2050, increasing the global food demand and requiring more infrastructure. un.org
Labor is a BIG challenge across industries
Agriculture
Overall employment of agricultural workers is projected to decline 2 percent from 2023 to 2033. bls.org
One U.S. farm feeds 169 people annually in the U.S. and abroad. With the rise in population, the world’s farmers will have to increase total annual grain production by almost 1 billion tons. American Farm Bureau
Construction
Contractors are tasked with closing the world’s $15 trillion infrastructure gap by 2040 meaning they need to move materials smarter and complete jobs faster. weforum.org
For housing alone, they need to build 96,000 new homes per day to provide enough for an additional 3 billion people expected by 2030. UN-Habitat
About 88% of contractors struggle to find skilled workers. PRT Staffing
Commercial Landscaping
Commercial landscapers are tasked with the upkeep of office parks and industrial complexes.
It’s a highly competitive and labor constrained market as 86% struggle with filling positions. 2024 Landscape Labor Market Report
Autonomy helps customers address these challenges and support our growing world
In the field
Deere’s autonomous tractor for large-scale ag operations will use the company’s second-generation autonomy kit. It can perceive the world through 16 individual cameras arranged in pods for a 360-degree view around the machine.
Autonomy began with tillage in 2022, Deere’s goal is to have a fully autonomous farming system for corn and soybeans in the U.S. by 2030.
In the orchard
Protecting high-value crops like almonds requires repetitive spraying up to 10 hours a day, 6-8 times a growing season all while driving 2.5 miles per hour.
Traditional GPS systems struggle with accuracy under orchard trees because of the canopy density. Deere’s autonomous diesel tractor, designed for pulling a blast sprayer in orchards, leverages 9 cameras, Lidar, and sensors, to allow the tractor to adapt to the dynamic environment in orchards.
A battery electric tractor of comparable size and capacity to existing diesel 5M/ML models on the market today will follow.
In the quarry
Deere’s first autonomous piece of construction equipment can handle the repetitive task of transporting material around the challenging terrain of a quarry.
The fully autonomous ADT is 34 feet long and 12 feet high and can carry over 92,000 lbs. of material – about the weight of 7 African elephants – in its bin. The camera array (12 cameras total) provides a 360-degree view of what’s around the machine and it can recognize common objects in a construction environment.
It takes almost 1,900 loads to construct one mile of interstate highway. And an average house incorporates around 120 tons of sand, gravel, and stone, equivalent to three full truckloads. That’s a lot of time saved for workers who can focus their efforts elsewhere.
In the grass
The mower uses autonomous technology, like the tractors and articulated dump truck, but only needs 4 pairs of stereo cameras since it has a much smaller footprint.
The autonomous battery electric mower can operate up to 10 hours per cycle, which aligns perfectly with a typical shift.
It will mow at a rate of 5-6 miles per hour and can adjust its speed to deliver optimal cut quality.
The autonomous battery electric mower has 19.2kWh of energy on board using sealed, lithium-ion batteries, enough to power most landscapers’ long day of work.