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Deployment

John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray at Sao Paulo, Brazil

John Deere (Deere & Company; Moline, Illinois; NYSE:DE; founded 1837) runs one of the most advanced autonomous-agriculture programs among the major equipment makers. Its most mature robotics product is See & Spray, a computer-vision targeted-herbicide system descended from Blue River Technology (acquired in 2017 for about $305 million), which covered roughly 5 million acres in 2025 at around a 50 percent average herbicide reduction. Deere's Autonomous 8R tractor, revealed at CES 2022, operates commercially but only for tillage, and its perception stack draws on Bear Flag Robotics (acquired in August 2021 for $250 million). At CES 2025 Deere revealed a second generation of autonomy: the Autonomous 9RX large tractor, a 5ML orchard tractor, a 460 P-Tier articulated dump truck, and a battery-electric mower, though Deere published no firm ship dates, so these are treated as early or limited rollout, with the dump truck in pilot trials and the mower pre-commercial. Deere's stated goal is to deliver a fully autonomous corn and soybean production system by 2030, a demonstration and availability target rather than a fleet-scale deployment promise. The frequently cited figure of 1 to 2 million autonomous machines could not be verified and appears to conflate a separate connected-machines connectivity goal, so it is not asserted here.

John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray by John Deere · Operated by John Deere · Catalog entry · 2 sources · not yet field-verified · Agricultural robots

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Machine-readable surfaces

Footage

PRIMARY SOURCE
Courtesy of John Deere

John Deere footage of its autonomous 9RX/8R tractors. In-field autonomy is GPS- and vision-guided and operator-monitored (the farmer supervises and can intervene via app), not unsupervised.

PRIMARY SOURCE
Courtesy of John Deere

Official John Deere video showcasing the autonomous 8R tractor for large-scale production agriculture. Features TruSet-enabled chisel plow, StarFire GPS guidance, and six stereo camera pairs for 360-degree obstacle detection.

John Deere autonomous tractor deployed at sugarcane farms in São Paulo state, Brazil. Large-scale commercial operation since 2023.

Key facts

Fleet
John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray
Coverage
Sugarcane farms in São Paulo state, Brazil
Start
Large-scale commercial operation since 2023
Use Case
Agriculture

Safety record

No incidents on record for John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray at Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Only active incidents are counted. Retracted incidents are excluded from this summary but remain reachable at their canonical URLs.

Trust tier
Catalog entry · 2 sources · not yet field-verifiedhow tiers work →
Last updated
2026-07-22
Company
John Deere
Operator
John Deere
Status
operational
Operator type
maker operated
ID
754c2e41-65ae-429d-8195-52a58b232880

Timeline

  1. Jun 2026
    created
  2. Jul 2026
    Current status: operational, reviewed
    Latest recorded state. New status transitions append here as the deployment-status recorder produces them.

On the deployment map

John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray operates in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Explore the full verified map:

Sources (2)

  1. https://www.deere.com/
  2. John Deere reaches for fully autonomous fleet by 2030 (covers global commercial rollout including South America) · https://www.producer.com/crops/deere-reaches-for-fully-autonomous-fleet-by-2030/
Methodology: Verified · 2 sources (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-07-22

Verification posture

Verified

Low confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-07-22

Maturity + lifecycle

Maturity stage: commercial

Lifecycle: active

Architectural position

Cohort: agriculture

Sources by quality tier

2
unclassified
Unclassified source

The framework is documented at /methodology. Corrections at /corrections. Reviewer: DEPLOY editorial team.

Methodology surface for John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray at Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Common questions

What is the John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray deployment at Sao Paulo, Brazil?
John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray, built by John Deere, is recorded as a deployment at Sao Paulo, Brazil on the DEPLOY registry. John Deere operates the deployment directly.
Who operates John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray at Sao Paulo, Brazil?
John Deere, the manufacturer of John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray, operates this deployment directly. This is a maker-deploys-its-own-product arrangement rather than a customer pilot.
Have there been incidents at the John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray deployment at Sao Paulo, Brazil?
No active incidents affecting this deployment are recorded on the DEPLOY registry. Absence of recorded incidents is not a guarantee no incident occurred; DEPLOY records only sourced incidents and suppresses retracted ones.

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