Self-driving vehicles are an elusive goal for the tech industry but one place where they might function properly is in the field. The literal field. John Deere has already shown off a self-driving tractor; now, agriculture company CNH Industrial has its own entry.
Called the New Holland T4 Electric Power, this is “the industry’s first all-electric light utility tractor prototype with autonomous features.” Last week, the vehicle was unveiled at the company’s Tech Day event in Phoenix, Arizona.
Electrifying CNH Industrial
The self-driving tractor has several standard EV features. Its battery pack should offer a full day’s worth of work, “…depending on the mission profile”. Charging to full, according to the company, takes just an hour, but we suspect you’ll need the right charge station installed for that. The vehicle generates 120HP and can reach a top speed of 40km/h. That’s about in line with actual dead-dinosaur tractors. As usual with EVs, torque is impressive at 400Nm. Finally, it’s able to power other devices out in the field, acting as a massive battery.
And then there are the autonomous functions. A collection of cameras and sensors mounted on the roof help the vehicle to navigate around fields. It’s capable of 360° obstacle avoidance, meaning it should (hopefully) not run over anyone in the middle of a field. It’s actually fairly hard to screw up autonomous functions on a farm because the vehicles don’t have to dodge traffic or quite as many humans. It’s a simpler problem to surmount. Oh, and farmers can send it on its way via a smartphone app.
The CNH Industrial New Holland T4 Electric Power should go into production at the end of 2023. At that time, the company intends to have a broader offering available in its EV lineup. But you don’t have to go electrical if you don’t want to.
The company has two ‘green’ other tractors in its lineup. Though perhaps that descriptor should be ‘brown’. The T4 Electric joins CNH Industrial’s New Holland T7 Methane Power LNG and T6 Methane Power tractors. Both, as the names suggest, run on methane — otherwise known as liquified natural gas. The fuel source is also known by a far more juvenile term — poo gas.