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Comment by jedberg | Hacker News Reader

It's fascinating how many different screens there are for all the different add ons.

I also like the part where she says, "Dad can sit in the office and monitor my planting from there".

Now even the hard working farmer is working in an office!

It looks like older videos were removed from the channel but when this first made the rounds (on twitter) a few days back there was a video of filling some reservoirs, and on the video there was a man on crutches. I assumed that'd be the father and why he's not operating machinery.

For a while now I've shifted my perception of farming; it's more administration and management now than anything else. I mean for crop seeding and harvesting a lot of farmers will hire a company to do it, instead of purchasing combines that are stationary for most of the year.

very cool! my first thought was that it looks way more complicated than a simple joystick/steering control.

They drive themselves. Tractors have been using autonomous guidance systems for a long time.

> autonomous guidance systems

They can do simple stuff like steering in a straight line at a constant speed or offset from a previously driven path. They still require a driver in the seat and more complicated operations like for example: unloading into a grain cart from a combine still has to be done by the driver.

There is work being done in this area though.

> unloading into a grain cart from a combine still has to be done by the driver.

Systems to have the combine take control of the tractor while unloading into the grain cart have been commercially available for a number of years now.

Yeah the autonomous driving was the least interesting part to me. It was everything else that was running semi-autonomously that I found fascinating, and the fact that they aren't integrated. That every piece of equipment has it's own screen.

Not everything has its own screen. The isobus standard has allowed one screen for years. It is easier to create your own screen than to use it. Also there is a lot to watch and so you sometimes want your own screen anyway just to ensure the important stuff is always in eyesight.

Farmers haven't been hard working in decades. There's a reason most farmers are obese, sitting isn't hard work. Even when I was a kid everyone around here still did square bales of hay and tossed them around by hand. Now it is 100% round bales handled with a loader. As everything got bigger, there was simply no possibility of human involvement because people can't lift 800 pounds.

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