LAS VEGAS (DTN) -- John Deere on Monday revealed at CES 2025 here a second-generation autonomy platform for both new and existing tractors. Deere also put forward plans to expand its autonomy footprint to tractors used in orchards, articulated trucks used in quarries and mowers used to maintain commercial landscapes.

"The pace of our autonomy solutions is accelerating," Jahmy Hindman, senior vice president and chief technology officer at John Deere, said at the event. "We're taking our tech stack, which is almost three decades in the making, and we're extending it to more of our machines to safely run autonomously in unique and complex environments that farmers work in every day."

"When we talk about autonomy, we mean full autonomy," Hindman said. "No one is in the machines," Hindman said.

By way of Deere's Operations Center, customers can monitor the machine's activity and see performance data.

"They watch the work being done, but they don't have to worry about who is going to do the work," Hindman said.

Deere first revealed an autonomous 8R tractor here in 2022. It is paired with a tillage tool suitable for fall tillage. With autonomy-ready tractors from the factory and the second-generation perception system, these tractors "will be able to do every job a tractor does on the farm, fall tillage, spring tillage, planting and grain cart operations," said Willy Pell, CEO Blue River Technology. Blue River was purchased by Deere in 2017.

The new technology also allows work to be completed with greater speed.

"(The complement of cameras) allows us to see further," said Matt Potter, director of robotics and mobility technology at Deere. "Seeing further allows us to drive the machines 40% faster and haul implements twice as wide as before. (That gives us) a substantial increase in productivity and adds more value through time saved with autonomy."

Deere's second-generation autonomy kits are passively cooled and ruggedized for hash environments.

Here are a few more takeaways from Monday's event:

-- Autonomy Expanding to the 9RX Tractor for Large-Scale Agriculture. The second-generation autonomy kit, featuring 16 individual cameras, gives a 360-degree view of the field. The advanced autonomy kit also calculates depth more accurately at larger distances, allowing the tractor to pull more equipment and drive faster.

-- Autonomous 5ML Orchard Tractor for Air Blast Spraying. This autonomy kit with added LiDAR sensors is a solution to work done in dense canopies that often interfere with GPS signals. The initial machine will be offered with a diesel engine. A battery electric tractor of comparable size and capacity to existing diesel 5M/ML models on the market today is coming.  LiDAR stands for light detection and ranging. LiDAR is used to gather images of obstacles in front and around the tractors.

-- 460 P-Tier Autonomous Articulated Dump Truck (ADT) for Quarry Operations. Using the second-generation kit, the ADT will handle the repetitive tasks of transporting material around the quarry.

-- Autonomous Battery Electric Mower for Commercial Landscaping. The autonomous commercial mower leverages the same camera technology as other Deere autonomous machines, but on a reduced scale.

Dan Miller can be reached at dan.miller@dtn.com

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