John Deere comes to CES 2025 ready to showcase the evolution of autonomy across different verticals. Just a few years removed from the debut of its first autonomous tractor in 2022, visitors to Booth 5016 in the West Hall will see how autonomy is taking four giant steps forward, according to Jahmy Hindman, SVP and CTO, Deere & Company.
Hindman pointed out that the world population is expected to increase from 8 billion to 10 billion over the next 10 years. Farmers, builders, and even landscapers will have their hands full trying to meet the needs of a vastly growing population. John Deere’s Second Generation Autonomy Kit will help meet those needs, but no longer just on the farm. Now, John Deere will help in the fields, orchards, quarries, and the grass.
Agriculture, construction, and commercial landscape all suffer from a common challenge: They have much work to be done with less and less labor availability. Hindman provided some staggering numbers: The average farmer is over 58 years of age, putting in 12-18 hours of work a day while 2.4 million farm jobs need to be filled. Conversely, 88 percent of contractors struggle to find skilled laborers, which means more work with fewer people. Landscapers? Eighty-six percent need to fill open positions. John Deere and autonomy are part of that solution.
Machines are becoming more experienced, which allows them to run more safely and efficiently. At CES 2025, John Deere is showcasing how it is scaling autonomy to different types of machines for new crops in new industries.
On the farm the focus is now on full autonomy — which means no one in the machine and the ability to monitor, interact, and see performance data remotely — with the Second Generation Autonomy Kit. There are new, rigid baseline camera systems to correct positioning in every single frame; real-time collaboration; enhanced long-range depth perception; and the ability to drive machines 40 percent faster.
In the orchards, high-value crops like fruits, vegetables, and nuts need to be constantly attended to. California leads the way in high-value crops and is suffering a labor shortage because they are physically taxing and grueling jobs that require 10 hours per day at 2.5 mph through orchards to spray trees.
Autonomy changes how they do things from a cell phone app, strengthening operations without the complexity of finding skilled laborers. Two new orchard tractors will be unveiled at CES 2025. Both use the Second Generation Automation Kit to provide consistent hardware, full camera coverage, and enhanced user interfaces. One is fully electric, powered by five immersion-cooled batteries for efficiency and sustainability while reducing maintenance costs.
Remember that expected 2-billion-person population increase? At the quarry — where valuable minerals are uncovered for everyday needs like toothpaste — contractors need to build 96,000 homes daily to match that expected population growth. At CES 2025, attendees will meet the Articulated Dump Truck (ADT). It is the first time autonomy will enter the construction site. The ATD, nicknamed Dusty, is also powered by the Second Generation Autonomy Kit with new capabilities with real purpose. It can dynamically adjust its track as it moves across the quarry and work together with other machines.
In the grass, John Deere has been involved in commercial landscaping for 60 years. Now, a new autonomous commercial mower will be introduced in Las Vegas. The fully electric mower — which reduces emissions and noise pollution — has four pairs of stereo cameras for a 360-degree view.
The Second Generation Autonomy Kit can be added to existing tractors to bring autonomy to current machines, freeing up time and money. The future, for John Deere, is about bringing real autonomy to real machines across more industries to more people, which ultimately, benefits all.
