Managing Risk When Purchasing Autonomous Equipment
Tim Hammerich
News Reporter
Autonomous equipment is making major strides toward labor savings and new efficiencies, but a big change or investment does come with inherent risk. Before making a major investment, Bonsai Robotics CEO Tyler Niday says growers should seriously consider whether their operation is properly set up for the technology.
Niday… “ You’ve got to think, right? A farmer gets, what? 40, 50 chances in their lifetime to perfect their crop, which is wild. And if you take one big swing or one big bet on a new expensive implement or imagine you buy a $1.2 million combine that doesn't work, it could ruin the farm, right? And unfortunately, specifically in California, there have been quite a few autonomous solutions that have been deployed that have not delivered to what they're promised. I think the key piece to successfully deploying autonomy on these farms is—is the farm set up for it, and does it actually make sense from an ROI perspective, right? Is it big enough ultimately to go run these 24/7 and not have to cross public roads? But also, the other big thing is just the want from the people who are gonna run it, right? Do they want it? Because, farmers, if they want it and are interested in it, they're going to find a way to make it work, especially in the early days. Whereas if they're opposed to it, especially if the product is good, there could be challenges there. So that's a big—making sure it's coming from the bottom up and not top down is a pretty good feature. The bottom up has to want it to make it successful, even if it's a perfect product.”
Once again, that’s Tyler Niday with Bonsai Robotics.
