Can it be addressed by changing the platform of farming vehicles? Hexapod walkers, for example?
Isn't that pretty much everything that's wrong with our agriculture today? Isn't large-scale monoculture, which this system obviously aims to support, a part of the environmental problems we're facing?
The original article points to the unsustainable course of the current trend, so while the caterpillar system and the ability to roll on less land solves the immediate problem described, it fails once you look at the bigger picture, I think.
It would be interesting to see a farm get a new voronoi-style layout each growing season.
The actual driving part is obviously much more trivial than autonomous driving on roads. However there are a lot of hard to automate adjustments and maintenance items going on with many tractor implements.
As you outlined, uptime is critical during these periods. I spent a lot of my time in remote locations, and reliability trumps everything. The cost of a hotshot is significant - however I was far more remote than the farms where.
Paying a person to drive the tractor doesn't seem like it's the large cost. It's the machinery you need 1x per year, at the same time everyone else does.