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Deployment

John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray at Des Moines

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 · Catalog entry · 1 source · not yet field-verified


Machine-readable surfaces

John Deere autonomous 8R tractor deployed at corn and soybean farms in Iowa. See & Spray technology for precision herbicide application.

Trust tier
Catalog entry · 1 source · not yet field-verified
Last updated
2026-06-07
Model
John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray
Company
John Deere
Location
Des Moines
Status
operational
ID
7e2690ed-94f9-4d6e-b866-b4ed771c90f7

Sources (1)

  1. https://www.deere.com/en/technology-products/precision-ag-technology/
Methodology: Verified · 1 source (no primary) · last reviewed 2026-06-07

Verification posture

Verified

Low confidence

Review state

Stable

Last reviewed 2026-06-07

Maturity + lifecycle

Maturity stage: commercial

Lifecycle: active

Architectural position

Cohort: agriculture

Sources by quality tier

1
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 Des Moines.

Common questions

What is the John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray deployment at Des Moines?
John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray, built by John Deere, is recorded as a deployment at Des Moines on the DEPLOY registry. John Deere operates the deployment directly.
Who operates John Deere autonomous tractor + See & Spray at Des Moines?
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 Des Moines?
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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