India’s First Self-Driving Tractor Coming Soon; Made by Escorts, Powered by Microsoft and Jio
Sep. 9, 2018Internet of Things (IoT)and AI-powered technology has enabled many new innovations, and improved productivity in almost every industry. Add farming to that list, at least in India as heavy vehicles makerEscorts has unveiled a “connected” and autonomous tractorwhich shouldallow farmers to make smarter choices and enablemore precise farming to eliminate loss due to negligence.
The smart tractor hassensors which study the health of the agricultural landand conserve water by managing it judiciously. It is also equipped with advanced tools to facilitate smart andmodern agriculture techniques.
Reliance Jiohas been brought on board as a communication partner, while Microsoft is expected to prepare a software backbone for the execution. Apart from this, Escorts has also partnered with AVL, BOSCH, Samvardhana Motherson Group, Trimble, and WABCO for developing various parts of the tractor, and this conglomerate is likely tocollaborate further for developing other connected devices and machinery required for farming.Image: Mint
Thetractor also features a voice assistantwhich can be used to get information in real-time.
Besides the tractor, the group of companies isalso looking into the applications of IoTin the areas of remote vehicles management, electric transmissions for heavy vehicles, as well as for managing big data related to soil quality and crop yield.
From Microsoft, Escorts is borrowing theexpertise of cloudand artificial intelligence to inform farmers about weather conditions and help them make better decisions to improve their production and preserve the fertility of the soil.
Thecompany will allow owners of the autonomous tractor to lease it to others on a short-term basisusing a platform called “Traxi”. Escorts itself will also be leasing smart equipment on a pay-per-use basis.
Meanwhile, this tractor is still in its concept phase and we can expect to see a working model in the next few years, as rural India’s internet consumption.
Featured Image: Mint
