All-Electric Self-Driving Farm Tractors Are Coming

Startup Monarch Tractor has developed self-driving robot tractors using the same technology as Tesla's electric cars to make agriculture safer and more sustainable

Autonomous farm robots have become a reality that promises to change agriculture, making it safer and more sustainable from an environmental point of view. To achieve this goal, the start-up Monarch Tractor combined Tesla' Incs TSLA and Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG unit Waymo's technologies for self-driving vehicles to create 100% electric robot tractors that can do without humans and are friendly to the environment. The first deliveries are scheduled for the end of 2021 with prices starting at $50,000.

Agriculture Is "Ready For Transformation:" Founded in late 2020 and headquartered in Livermore, California, Monarch Tractor deems its robot tractor project very promising to make agriculture more efficient and provide new possibilities for farmers, especially for those who encounter difficulties in finding a workforce. Thus, thanks to the use of advanced sensors, special software and high computing power. One of the advantages over self-driving mobility on the road is that it does not need federal or state approvals in order to be used on private land.

"The food ecosystem is ready for transformation," explains the firm's CEO and co-founder Praveen Penmetsa. "With farmers demanding sustainable tools that can increase efficiency and farm profitability. Thus, we have seen an incredible and accelerating demand for our Monarch Tractor,” he adds.

Robot Tractors' Technical Characteristics: While Monarch's agricultural vehicles can perform their tasks in programmed mode - without any driver -, they may also function as traditional vehicles. The operator, in fact, can choose the 'Gesture' and 'Shadow' interactive modes, instructing the tractor to follow a worker in the fields. Each vehicle can collect more than 240 GB of crop data per day and process the gathered information to decide to change the type of employed tools or to provide long-term estimates on crops, growth stages, and plant health.

Who Are The Investors? Monarch Tractor has just fundraised $20 million for its project and is preparing to kick off deliveries. This sum will allow the company to expand its operations from the United States to all the other international markets. Among the investors who participated in the first fundraising, there are several large firms, such as the Japanese automotive component manufacturer Musashi Seimitsu Industry, the Italian agricultural and commercial vehicle producer CNH Industrial NV CNHI, not to mention the Indian Vst Tillers Tractor, At One Ventures and the Muus Group.

This article originally appeared on Financialounge.com and was translated from Italian to English. It does not represent the opinion of Benzinga and has not been edited. For news coverage in Italian or Spanish, check out Benzinga Italia and Benzinga España.