The article literally mentions that the tractors use AI to avoid obstacles in the first paragraph.
To avoid a semantics debate, I'll agree for a brief moment the AI is "driving" the tractor to avoid an object and get back on the pre-programmed route.
GPS is one way of doing one part of self driving. But it's ALL self driving
I say that because it's not driving itself, it's driving a route you plotted or recorded.
You can't take that same tractor and have it work on your neighbors pasture as-is, it has to be programmed.
But again, this is getting into a semantics debate. Personally I'd prefer to differentiate using autonomous and automated, self-driving is too ambiguous.
(hint: no, you are driving the car with assisted technology)
I'll remember to cite this in the next Tesla thread when we discuss Autopilot and self-driving.
Tractors don’t sit idle all of the time, the owners swap out tractor attachments so their “user experience” depends on handling the transition between manual driving and automatic operation, even if that UX is limited to “too far from first waypoint, try again.”