Deere, meet Starlink, meet Gigantic AI Tractors

18th January 2024

Sam Volkering

Jan 18, 2024

Welcome to AI Collision 💥,

A picturesque scene in a vast, sunlit agricultural field where a state-of-the-art John Deere tractor equipped with advanced AI technology is in operation. The tractor is efficiently plowing the fertile soil, and it is adorned with futuristic features that suggest its AI capabilities. It's seamlessly connected to the internet via a wireless connection, transmitting data to and from a Starlink satellite positioned high above in space. The satellite, with its gleaming solar panels, floats serenely in the cosmic expanse. The tractor's AI system is symbolized by glowing blue indicators, showcasing its intelligence and connectivity. The field is lush and vibrant, and the entire scene exudes a sense of modern agricultural innovation.

In today’s collision between AI and our world:

Picture this…
Folding robots
AI Tinder

If that’s enough to get the tractor ploughing, read on…

AI Collision 💥 no Deere in those headlights

What do tractors and space rockets have in common?

At first you might think, nothing.

But you’d be wrong.

Picture this…

You’re out in the middle of nowhere. In Australia we’d say, “You’re out the back of whoop whoop.” Just driving along, with fields and fields of agricultural land around you.

Barely any civilisation in sight. And then as you rise up and over a crest, you see a large green and yellow tractor in the distance, ploughing those fields. You can see it’s been at work for some time judging by the fields it’s already ploughed.

As you get closer and closer, you remark at how impressive it is that this tractor in such a wide, open expanse has military precision in its lines. But you also know that’s not uncommon with GPS tracking these days.

Then as you eventually pass the tractor, glancing across to catch a glimpse of the farmer inside, something shocks you.

There is no one inside.

This tractor… is driving itself.

A self-driving tractor! And here we thought there’d be self-driving cars on the roads by now. No, it’s in the field that autonomous systems are being deployed to improve efficiency, drive down costs and ultimately result in more productive harvests and more affordable food for the end consumer.

God knows with food inflation the way it is, anything that helps keep food costs down has to be a good thing.

But the question arises, how on earth does a tractor drive itself and plough a field?

The answer is a combination of factors, tech and companies.

A perfect example of how this kind of thing is even possible is the newly announced “Strategic Partnership” tractor and heavy machinery giant John Deere is doing with Elon Musk’s Starlink company.

So there’s the answer to the question above, tractors and space rockets now seem to have a lot in common.

Starting in the US and Brazil in the second half of 2024, Deere says this is to

“... [unlock] the John Deere tech stack so every farmer can fully utilize their current precision agriculture technology in addition to the new innovative solutions they will deploy in the future.”

Deere has actually been using precision guidance technology in its machinery for decades but it’s not something that most people would pay attention to.

Just like most people won’t pay attention to the fact a company like Deere (NYSE:DE) is also going to continue to push down the AI path and further into autonomous and AI-enabled farming and heavy machinery technology.

I say this because I saw this:

AI, farming, self-driving tractors, connected to Starlink, connectivity, data... As I said earlier, there are a lot of moving parts to all this.

That also means a lot of investable ideas in all this too.

Is Deere the answer? Or Starlink via SpaceX? Or is it something else, the computer hardware inside these technologies that power it all?

Or is it all of the above?

Needless to say, a collision like SpaceX with John Deere is exactly the kind of thing we look at when we talk about the AI collision.

And it’s the kind of tech that’s worth keeping an eye on and seeing if it makes a dent on farming, agriculture and Deere’s stock price.

AI gone wild 🤪

To give some context as to what comes next, you kind of need to watch the following video (click on the image).

Right, so there’s a few things about this video.

People think this isn’t much. It’s a slow robot folding a shirt. And the robot was pre-programmed to do this.

Here’s the thing. If you have a kid, say, under the age of 15, this robot is still approximately 10x faster than a kid at folding a shirt.

If my five-year-old is anything to go by, this robot is 100x faster, and better at it.

The other thing is that just like a kid, when you teach a robot that has AI plugged into it, it learns.

Elon said as much too. And that in time, a short time (as in years) these kinds of tasks can be done by the Optimus robot in different environments, with different conditions and fixtures and standing or sitting. The robot will just learn to fold clothes.

And it will get faster.

This doesn’t mean the robot will think you’re clothes and then try to fold you in your sleep. It just means that helpful, useful robotics with AI are a lot closer than people think.

The other thing about this is a simple question, why does it seem to take Elon to come along to actually get something done?

Boston Dynamics has been at this for decades. It’s got a scary parkour robot and a weird looking “dog” that people just want to strap weapons onto.

Yet along comes Elon and within about a year and a half, he’s got this thing doing something that doesn’t terrify the pants off of everyone.

Same with Starlink. SpaceX. Tesla. And likely with X.com too considering it recently got a payments licence in Utah and is on track to do a lot more than be a free open platform for content, media and speech.

Needless to say, if Optimus gets better as it will, and it’s deployed through Tesla, maybe Tesla isn’t a future car company. Maybe Tesla is a future AI company that also happens to make robots and cars.

Boomers & Busters 💰

AI and AI-related stocks moving and shaking up the markets this week. (All performance data below over the rolling week).

man in black suit jacket and black pants figurine

Boom 📈

WISeKey International (NASDAQ:WKEY) up 29%
Team Internet Group (LSE:TIG) up 9%
AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) up 6%

Bust 📉

C3.ai (NADSAQ:AI) down 14%
BigBear.ai (NASDAQ:BBAI) down 11%
iRobot (NASDAQ:IRBT) down 20%

From the hive mind 🧠

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