WHILE driverless cars are struggling to emerge on to the market, many agricultural machinery manufacturers have already developed self-driving tractors that run alone, without human intervention.

The technology was introduced 15 years ago and although John Deere, with its AutoTrac system, is one of the best known providers, all major farming machinery groups have already equipped their machines with a satellite guidance system.

In its early stages, the target audience was a bit suspicious of this technology but for the last five or six years it has been fully adopted by farmers. New high-end farm machinery is automatically equipped with driverless technology but tractors over 50 years old can also be customised. The technology is also compatible with combine harvesters and most motorised vehicles designed to go into the fields.

The system works just like a GPS system does in a car. It can tell you where you are and where you are going. It is operated simply by a connection between the high-tech GPS and the small hydraulic motor that turns the wheel.

The GPS allows for an accuracy of up to two centimeters, which is obviously much more difficult to achieve with manual driving: a second of inattention or poor driving skills can alter the planned route.

Manual operations are therefore also slower. Driverless technology, on the other hand, combines both accuracy and speed.

The proven success of driverless machines in the farming world has spurred car manufacturers to join the race towards the automation of cars. The prospects for driverless technology are indeed revolutionary and it could quickly become one of the major innovations of the next decades.

The social improvements resulting from it are endless. Safety on the road is one of its biggest advantages, but shorter gaps between cars should also allow for less traffic congestion. Additionally, it should offer a new form of mobility to the elderly and disabled while transforming car travel into a far more productive experience.

A number of manufacturers already offer semi-autonomous technology such as traffic jam autopilot assistance, self-parking or automatic speed control. When it comes to driverless technology, Google was the first company to launch a self-driving car prototype in June 2015. It relies on a sophisticated system of radars and cameras that can map the environment and detect cars, pedestrians, traffic lights, white lines…

In the race to design driverless cars, Google is in competition with Tesla, who launched its autonomous car at the end of 2015.

Also still in its testing phase, the Telsa car is still more of a driver assistance system which can be activated only under certain conditions, than a true self-driving vehicle. The driver must always remain in the driver’s seat and stay focused on the road in order to take control at a moment’s notice.

In China, Changan has also successfully tested its prototype, while a BMW customised by Baidu, the Chinese search engine, was automatically driven throughout Beijing. In France, a driverless Citroen Picasso made a 600km journey in October 2015 and Volvo, now owned by China’s Geely, announced the testing of one hundred autonomous cars in China in 2016.

One of the biggest obstacles to the development of driverless cars today is the fear of accidents. In 80% of cases, accidents on the road are caused by human error, and the autonomous car, designed to avoid collisions, should logically improve traffic safety.

However, a recent fatal accident involving a Tesla autopilot model has proven that zero risk does not exist and that we are still a few decades away from driverless vehicles being the norm.

Although many questions still persists concerning the entry into circulation of self-driving cars, the adoption rate of driverless machines in the farming world is without doubt serving as a launching pad for the technology to enter our everyday lives in the years to come.

Article contribution by https://www.agriaffaires.co.uk/