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John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX

deere.com

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Re: John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX

#71

Post by turing_complete »

PedroBatista wrote: post #31

John Deere & SpaceX , a match made in hell. Hopefully the world will end before they spice up their marriage and extend the offer to Tesla. Technically it makes some sense, but most of the push is because for more "data, intelligence, cloud, AI" in order to get more "value" to big agrobusinesses or anyone who can pay to stay in the party. Agriculture is already a massive business only a few gigantic corporations can…

What's so great about a family farm? We're much better off without 90% of the population being poor, self-subsistence farmers.

Re: John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX

#72

Post by bluGill »

mathgradthrow wrote: post #34

It is of incredible strategic importance that tractors not become "online only". Some fucking John Deere licensing server should not become a single point of failure for the nations agriculture.

Farmers do not want that. John Deere collects a lot of opt-in data from tractors. That is the owner of the tractors chooses to upload that data because they get value from it. If the tractor is not online or the GPS isn't working the farmer will stay home to fix things as the data is too valuable to risk not having it uploaded. (you can export the data to USB, but that is a hassle). Farmers who don't get a good cell signal of course do work without getting data uploaded, but they want the real time monitoring possible with an always on connection.

I work for Deere, but don't speak for the company.

Re: John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX

#74

Post by kube-system »

mathgradthrow wrote: post #56
kube-system wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Already too late. Farmers already use quite a bit of connected technology in the field. Modern high-output farming and the cheap food we have really wouldn't be possible without it. e.g. https://www.smh.com.au/national/farmers-crippled-by-satellit...

GPS is ideally quite redundant, and the data from it is usable without an internet connection. GPS is fine.

Civilian GPS is not accurate enough for precision farming which is why these tractor manufacturers in my above link were using Inmarsat L-band to transmit correction information in addition to using GPS.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarFire_(navigation_system)

Re: John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX

#76

Post by NavinF »

CuriouslyC wrote: post #48
PedroBatista wrote: post #31

John Deere & SpaceX , a match made in hell. Hopefully the world will end before they spice up their marriage and extend the offer to Tesla. Technically it makes some sense, but most of the push is because for more "data, intelligence, cloud, AI" in order to get more "value" to big agrobusinesses or anyone who can pay to stay in the party. Agriculture is already a massive business only a few gigantic corporations can…

Don't worry, when we ruin soil fertility and the population collapses due to loss of farmland from global warming, all this will self-correct.

Do you actually believe that will happen? How much do you want to bet?

Re: John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX

#77

Post by sgtnoodle »

mathgradthrow wrote: post #56
kube-system wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Already too late. Farmers already use quite a bit of connected technology in the field. Modern high-output farming and the cheap food we have really wouldn't be possible without it. e.g. https://www.smh.com.au/national/farmers-crippled-by-satellit...

GPS is ideally quite redundant, and the data from it is usable without an internet connection. GPS is fine.

I imagine a mostly autonomous land vehicle relying on GPS would also require RTK GPS, which does require an external source of the data. Some GPS receivers can receive that from satellites, but the data is encrypted and requires expensive commercial licenses or military grade equipment.

Re: John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX

#78

Post by [deleted] »

don_neufeld wrote: post #66
CuriouslyC wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not entirely true, small family farming can compete in niche, specialty and high end produce, they can capitalize on having a pretty farm (because "real" farms are incredibly ugly but people have pastoral fantasies), and farm stands can be profitable if they're in the right location.

That’s true, but it’s also exceptionally rare. In that version, you are fundamentally not a farmer, you are a marketer. Source: grew up in a farm town. Go Wheat Kings!

[deleted]

Re: John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX

#79

Post by idiotsecant »

iancmceachern wrote: post #65
arwineap wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does this have to do with TaaS, or right to repair? Just because it has tons of sensors doesn't mean they shouldn't be replacable

They're not really tractors. They sell land prep, crop sowing, and harvesting solutions. It's not like a car. These things are used for a few weeks a year, and if they don't do their job during that time the farm looses all their income for the year. A better way to think of them is like construction equipment that you rent. Even big construction companies rent their equipment.

This comment still doesn't answer parent question. I design critical infrastructure control systems for a living. Every single component of my systems is user servicable and replaceable with an alternative COTS available component with a little bit of work. There is literally no reason a tractor can't also do that. Other than market moats and rent seeking.

Re: John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX

#80

Post by idiotsecant »

bluGill wrote: post #72
mathgradthrow wrote: post #34

It is of incredible strategic importance that tractors not become "online only". Some fucking John Deere licensing server should not become a single point of failure for the nations agriculture.

Farmers do not want that. John Deere collects a lot of opt-in data from tractors. That is the owner of the tractors chooses to upload that data because they get value from it. If the tractor is not online or the GPS isn't working the farmer will stay home to fix things as the data is too valuable to risk not having it uploaded. (you can export the data to USB, but that is a hassle). Farmers who don't get a good cell…

Lol farmers absolutely want their tractor to work when the cell network doesn't what are you talking about. Sounds like you might have drank a little too much of the company koolaid. It's not surprising, I know engineers at Deere and it sounds like quite a toxic environment.
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