An overview of autonomous tractors and retrofit kits for sale in 2022

While it looks like the path for autonomy is finally being paved, it were the brand independent retrofit systems that opened up the market for driverless tractors some 10 years ago. Alike the manufacturers of autosteer systems, it were these pioneers that started making autonomous driving a reality.

Updated buyers guide of autonomous retrofit kits

At least one of those pioneers has seized to exist, but there’s six remaining alternatives who provided Future Farming with the necessary answers, specifications and pricing to complete the updated buyers guide of autonomous retrofit kits. They ask between € 38,000 ($ 43,200) and € 65,000 ($ 74,000) to upgrade basically any tractor and vehicle to an autonomous driver optional version.

For the average of that, € 51,000 or $ 58,000, you can buy a brand-new factory-made autonomous tractor from Monarch Tractor. Their 100% electric MK-V tractor with 40 hp continuous and 70 hp peak power has been commercially available for a few years now. This year, they however increased their starting price from $ 50,000 to € 58,000.

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Others develop, John Deere launches

Until the beginning of this year, it was only Monarch Tractor and Yanmar who were included in our catalogue with commercially available autonomous tractors. Both offer these in their country of origin, respectively the United States and Japan. Early January, John Deere revealed its autonomous 8R tractor that will become available to a select number of American farmers this year. In the series ’The autonomous John Deere from a farmer’s perspective’, Future Farming shares what expectations Australian, Brazilian, Canadian and English farmers have from this autonomous John Deere. As soon as John Deere shares the required details, their tractor will also be added to the buyers guide.

To find out what autonomous plans other tractor manufacturers have, Future Farming approached Agco, Claas, Case IH, Escorts (Farmtrac), Kubota, New Holland and Mahindra. None of them however wanted to share any details about their developments or introduction plans. Judging the number of recent acquisitions and collaborations concentrating on autonomy however, it’s just a matter of time, maybe even months, before they will reveal their prototypes. Meanwhile it’s machine manufactures such as Horsch and Vermeer who draw attention with their autonomous concepts.