The other driverless
VEHICLE
Trials of autonomous cars by Uber and Waymo are grabbing the headlines, but this kind of
technology also promises to transform industrial machinery
Several types of tractors -- vehicles
the non-functional concept stage to
enter real-world testing. In other words,
right now their makers are de ning the
interface between technological and
design possibilities and market realities.
A well-placed expert to explain
more is Case International Harvester’s
previous product manager of autonomous
vehicles Brad Lukac (now the Magnum
tractor global product manager),
who put together the original crossfunctional
team of engineers, designers,
communications and lawyers to develop
the company’s rst cabless tractor
concept vehicle in 2016. He says that
this version was intended to “shake
that tow things in elds or on
roads, but probably don’t carry
them -- are currently being tested
in operation without an onboard driver.
These devices cannot be thought of as
independent, since they operate within the
strict con nes of pre-set software rules.
Still, they are, to a greater or lesser degree,
autonomous, since they carry out their jobs
primarily on their own, with only human
assistance as a backup.
Those operational changes are
signalled in their form factor. Freed from
the previous necessity of housing and
protecting a human driver, the machines
are wrapped in futuristic exterior shells
that amplify their difference to current
technology. Although some design
features may be deliberately
provocative, so may
not remain once
production starts in
a few years’ time,
the projects have
passed
up the industry and get attention as the
ultimate expression of autonomy. We
need to get customers thinking about
what this might mean.”
The tractor, pictured below, is based
around a Magnum unit with ‘reimagined’
styling, automatically plots its own course
through a eld. On-board sensing in the
form of radar, LiDAR and cameras detect
obstacles, and the vehicle reacts to them
by stopping in front of them until a remote
operator provides a new path. It also
stops if it loses a GPS signal, position
data, or when the manual stop button is
pressed, the company states. The OEM
partnered with Autonomous Solutions
Incorporated to develop the technology.
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