Equipment manufacturer New Holland has added specialty crop autonomous tractor aftermarket kits to its dealer locations in the Western United States.
Through the autonomous kits, New Holland, a subsidiary of global agriculture and construction equipment manufacturer Turin, Italy-based CNH Industrial, customers can upfit their current New Holland tractors to run fully autonomously, according to a June 25 press release.
On June 25, it partnered with autonomous technology maker Bluewhite to distribute, manufacture and integrate Bluewhite’s autonomous kits for its tractors in North America, Paul Welbig, precision product marketing director for New Holland Agriculture North America, told Equipment Finance News.
A priority for New Holland continues to be the development of autonomous tractor solutions.
“It’s definitely been top of mind and a top priority for CNH in general,” he said. “There’s a lot of different use cases that could benefit from driverless technology and driver-assist technology around the ability to automate a lot of the tractor functions. With the challenge of labor and other aspects, creating challenges in the marketplace for a lot of our customers.”
New Holland began selling, distributing and servicing Bluewhite’s kits on June 25, according to a CNH Industrial release. The partnership between New Holland and Fresno, Calif.-based Bluewhite affirmed the viability of the kits, but some New Holland dealers already began evaluating Bluewhite’s kits, Welbig said.
“Some of them had already considered and met with Bluewhite, and seriously considered bringing them on as a product line, but some of them were a little cautious due to the nature of a startup company,” he said.
New Holland dealers are pleased about the partnership as it has “helped check the box” for supplying the technology solution for the market, Welbig added.
Partnering for autonomous specialty crop kits
New Holland partnered with Bluewhite because its autonomous technology provides a solution for the specialty crop market, Welbig said.
“New Holland has such a big presence in a lot of those markets, orchards and vineyards, particularly in the Western U.S.,” he said. “Through that journey of trying to figure out what we can modify, the company found Bluewhite’s solution.”
The specialty crop market represents an opportunity for autonomous agriculture equipment, as most current solutions target the row crop market, Welbig said.
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