[whizzkid]

+ Really good idea to make use of the electricity in other ways than just driving. (generators, lamps, etc.)

+ 10 hours covers up a good day in field.

- a lot of farms are away from electricity sources to charge and sometimes internet connection is non-existent. It is risky to leave a 50k machine on its own to do its job. And what to do if battery runs out on the field?

- how long does it take to recharge? A lot of farmers will not have fast charges on their farm.

[cogman10]

> a lot of farms are away from electricity sources to charge

In the US? Not true. The vast majority of US farms have power for one simple reason, they irrigate. It'd be far too expensive to irrigate using a gas pump.

The exception MIGHT be dry farms, but those aren't as common as you might think. Further, most farms have shops for repairs which almost always have power for lights (and heat sometimes).

> And what to do if battery runs out on the field?

Simple, grab a gas generator, run to the tractor, and charge it up enough to hobble it to the shop and to a full charge. You might waste an hour running your generator, but that's really not that big of a deal. Many farmers already have those generators (welding is a big reason why).

A particularly ecologically focused farmer might buy some solar panels to do the same thing :).

> how long does it take to recharge? A lot of farmers will not have fast charges on their farm.

Doesn't really matter, it can charge overnight slowly. So long as the farm has access to 240V they likely can get it charge up in the 14 hours of downtime.

At $50k, this is a particularly cheap tractor as well. I'd suspect that farmers would buy 2 and completely sidestep the charging problem if they wanted to run for more than 10 hours.

[maxerickson]

A lot of farms do operate on acreage that is fairly remote to their garage space (a lease or similar can be miles away).

[NegativeLatency]

Farms might have 3 phase? With welders and machine tools being necessary for mantainence.

[jasonwatkinspdx]

> - a lot of farms are away from electricity sources to charge

It's actually quite common for farms to have 3 phase power at the least. Modern farming is heavily industrialized. There's all sorts of dryers or blowers or other processing equipment to be run depending on the crop or livestock. Renewables, either self owned or leased land access are a big growth thing too. This means you can be in the boonies of western Kansas and yet be proximate to truly staggering amounts of intermittent generation.

> and sometimes internet connection is non-existent.

It's not great service, but sat internet is pervasive (and yes before the mob shows up starlink is likely to vastly improve this). The main thing this needs is connectivity between the unit and farmer, which is just local wireless.

> It is risky to leave a 50k machine on its own to do its job.

The price isn't a factor in any way I can think of. Any farm bigger than trivial will have several 100 thousand dollars if not millions worth of machinery parked out in the open, and tractor automation has been a big deal for a while now including examples of self driving for simple tasks.

> And what to do if battery runs out on the field?

Probably use the farm truck to haul the portable generator up to it to charge enough to get er back to the barn. Or call the neighbor and ask for a tow. Traditional tractors get stuck all the time. On the scale of problems farmers solve routinely this is very easy.

I think it's probably easy for the audience here to misunderstand what modern farming is like due to unfamiliarity. Farming is high tech now, and farmers are amazing problem solvers. But even historically that was true. Your idealized turn of the century farmer in the US knew how to operate and fix steam engines, pumps, do basic metalwork among many other things. Modern farmers are often skilled builders and fabricators as well.

[cogman10]

:D you posted pretty much exactly what I did.

I grew up on a farm so it was kind of funny reading "A lot of farms don't have access to electricity"

It's weird to read something like that. Every farm in my farming hometown had power nearby. Heck, you'll see power lines all across Idaho primarily for farmers running pumps. You simply don't get more rural than Idaho.

To put things into perspective, this house has power.

https://goo.gl/maps/x6ZiGMhxbKxfHJSj7

Make sure you zoom out to get some perspective on how remote that little house is.

[7952]

Also, farms tend to have three phase HV close by just because that is what is used by the transmission system. And 150v is not suitable for connecting remote properties due to voltage drp from resistance. So there is probably a transformer on a pole close by.

[jmtulloss]

Not covered in the article, but in another demo the company says that they’re going to have a cart for bringing out new batteries and that you can change them out in the field. So if you need more than 10 hours, you can get 2 batteries and have it working 24/7 with minimal downtime.

[monarchtractor]

Hi whizzkid - great questions! Our tractor provides real time alerts and can notify farm operators when the battery is low, if human or obstacle halts operation. Like jmtulloss mentioned, we do have a battery swap cart so you can swap out a battery with one person in under 10 minutes. Standard charge time at 220v is 4-5 hr. You can find all the specs at monarchtractor.com

[cogman10]

So, ~50kWh battery packs?

[xoa]

>and sometimes internet connection is non-existent.

Starlink might offer a bit of disruption there, particularly once its approved for mobile usage. They might ultimately have an opportunity to offer plans/terminals specifically for situations like this too, dedicated application devices that need small amounts of bandwidth in isolated areas.

[VVertigo]

I could see farm equipment as a great use case for swappable battery packs. There are loaders readily available for lifting them into place and they could be made easy to access as the equipment does not need to be compact.

[elihu]

The article says it recharges in four or five hours.

[asutekku]

Charging overnight + installing solar panels near the fields will solve problem. Of course it’s easier said than done, but changing processes will lead to the solution.

[salty_biscuits]

It would be perfect if the autonomy worked well in the dark, then it could just work at night and then charge during the day.

[throwaway201103]

Where can I invest in your solar panels that work overnight?