Some notes on John Deere’s agricultural technology advancements
I have been interested in John Deere ever since I read they have been adapting private networks for smart manufacturing and I have been reading up on their overall use of technology. They really are a very interesting technology driven company. Below are some points I have noted while reading up on them.
1). In 2022, John Deere launched its Leap Ambitions Framework to:
- To expand the number of connected machines to 1.5 million by 2026, a significant increase from the 500,000 connected machines in 2022.
- Demonstrate viable low/no carbon alternative power solutions by 2026.
- Aim for 10% of total revenue to be recurring by 2030.
2.) As of 2022, John Deere had 40% of the global connected tractor share. And over 50% of John Deere products can connect to the internet, with the majority connected via a cellular connection. This is mainly used for real-time monitoring, predictive maintenance and remote diagnostics so farm technicians don’t have to travel to the machine.
3.) This service is called JDlink, which now seems to be a free subscription for John Deere customers, no connectivity fees (and I can’t see if there is any catch apart from potentially John Deere owning the data).
4.) Just over two weeks ago (Jan 2024), John Deere and SpaceX signed a deal to use Starlink for rural connectivity to John Deere machines, starting in the US and Brazil in the second half of 2024. Starlink’s SATCOM solutions connect to new and existing John Deere machines and equipment through a ruggedized satellite terminal. It will be interesting to see how if traffic shifts for JDlink from 4G to Starlink.
5.) They are making a real push to incorporate robotics, AI, computer vision with autonomous tractors. John Deere recently purchased a 180-acre farm in Coupland, Texas, converting it to a test farm for technologically advanced farming machinery. In the last 5 years, they have increased the number of software engineers in the company by 350%. We have 4,300 software engineers in the company today.
6). As an example, the John Deere autonomous 8R Tractor collected over 200 million-plus images during in-field testing over the past 3 years. Each model is trained with hundreds of thousands of images, and its neural network classifies each pixel in about 100 milliseconds.
I haven’t really gone into the work they are doing with precision agriculture, reducing waste, electrification of machines for the future, there is a lot here also with products such as See and Spray technology.
I have read a few articles and reports to get these notes and I'll add links in comments.
Are there any other major advancements by this company that I have missed?