I don’t think a tractor is the right form, but I could imagine a smaller electric drone for mechanical weed control instead of any herbicide. Something small and effective for that purpose but too small and weak to be broadly dangerous.
Like how little robot lawn mowers are adequate to mow but safe for people because it weighs less than 20 pounds and has little 1 inch blades that swivel freely that can’t cut anything tougher than grass.
Tractors are big and potentially dangerous, but for a lot of their tasks, they are only big to have a single human do a lot in a little time. Having dozens of 24/7 drones could do some of those tasks with very meager resources. Tiny equipment, slower movement.
But have to live within the capabilities of AI techniques, which are selectively useful. Machine vision for flagging likely undesirable plants, maybe, operating equipment autonomously, maybe less so.
I don’t think a tractor is the right form, but I could imagine a smaller electric drone for mechanical weed control instead of any herbicide. Something small and effective for that purpose but too small and weak to be broadly dangerous.
Like how little robot lawn mowers are adequate to mow but safe for people because it weighs less than 20 pounds and has little 1 inch blades that swivel freely that can’t cut anything tougher than grass.
Tractors are big and potentially dangerous, but for a lot of their tasks, they are only big to have a single human do a lot in a little time. Having dozens of 24/7 drones could do some of those tasks with very meager resources. Tiny equipment, slower movement.
But have to live within the capabilities of AI techniques, which are selectively useful. Machine vision for flagging likely undesirable plants, maybe, operating equipment autonomously, maybe less so.