This is much more efficient than a diesel tractor that struggles to pull itself.
Tractors can carry many tons of liquid that needs to be sprayed on crops, as well as an implement that can spray a many yards wide swath of crops.
A tractor is also something that is needed for the rest of the farming and harvesting operation.
My grandfather's tractor has been running on machine oil, curses, and cheap diesel for 40+ years before he sold it off due to age.
Now if you combine this drone with a targeted spray depositing, you see where I'm getting?
P.S. I don't know why my comment was down voted, but ignorance knows no boundaries.
I don't know what that sentence means. Tractors, by definition, don't struggle to pull. Quite notoriously, they can pull hard enough to flip themselves over.
Now combine the tractor with targeted spray depositing. Any technology that can be strapped to a drone, can be made cheaper by removing the expensive, fragile drone bits, and then strapped to a tractor. Farmers aren't in the business of spraying expensive chemicals onto crops that don't need them. They are VERY conscious of the costs, and are always looking for a way to lower them.
The point is that a tractor is necessary equipment that farmer already owns, and can take a combination of implements that are tried and tested, and capable of being incrementally improved on. The only thing that a drone can do that a tractor can't is move quickly.
You are not trying to flood the field with pesticides
And weigh lt us a huge problem, when it’s wet you not allowed to drive in the fields because you will compact the soil, ruining it
It also has a pretty high capex bar to clear - it can’t replace a tractor, the farmer needs that still for implements, so it is purely additive in the capex area :/
Still, looks super duper cool and presumably has some tricks it can do a tractor can’t!