Farmer Roy's Random Thoughts - I never said it was easy.

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
Yeah, with the basket pickers there was lots of labour & machines involved.
A four row picker generally needed 2 module builders & a boll buggy to keep it going.
A 6 row round picker can work all day with 1 man . . .
No wonder there is so much unemployment in the states!
When i told folk back home i was on the cotton farm, i got all the jibes about " pickin da cotton", etc etc
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
No wonder there is so much unemployment in the states!
When i told folk back home i was on the cotton farm, i got all the jibes about " pickin da cotton", etc etc

the transport industry ( large trucks ) is a huge employer in the US. Imagine the unemployment with driverless trucks in a few yrs ( they already exist in the mining industry & everyone knows about the google cars ) !!
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
Right now, our government is looking at planning national transport strategies / infrastructure & factoring in autonomous trucks . . .

The road safety mob love the idea & are really pushing for them ( the theory being, most road accidents are due to human error, so remove the humans . . . )
 

CornishTone

Member
BASIS
Location
Cornwall
Right now, our government is looking at planning national transport strategies / infrastructure & factoring in autonomous trucks . . .

The road safety mob love the idea & are really pushing for them ( the theory being, most road accidents are due to human error, so remove the humans . . . )

I wonder if it’ll be as successful as NBN and the Sydney/Melbourne rail link?

To be fair, I suspect most of the “human error” is down to average joe motorists not being sufficiently aware of their surroundings rather than the truckies who have to take nearly as many exams as a commercial pilot and contend with nearly as much bureaucracy. But hey ho!
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
Right now, our government is looking at planning national transport strategies / infrastructure & factoring in autonomous trucks . . .

The road safety mob love the idea & are really pushing for them ( the theory being, most road accidents are due to human error, so remove the humans . . . )
Maybe we should invent an autonomous parliament to remove the politicians human errors and see how the pricks like that?
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
It's not too bad.
I haven't had any hair for the past 30 years so a hat of some description is usually to hand.. it's the wind that is the killer. Rest of the climate is nice, but gets a bit cool when you have 5 degrees, 120kmh wind, and rain all happening... such is spring calving!
 

Pond digger

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Location
East Yorkshire
Right now, our government is looking at planning national transport strategies / infrastructure & factoring in autonomous trucks . . .

The road safety mob love the idea & are really pushing for them ( the theory being, most road accidents are due to human error, so remove the humans . . . )
But as autonomous vehicles are a new concept, how do they know that mechanical failure wont be just as big a cause of accidents.
 

Chae1

Member
Location
Aberdeenshire
Right now, our government is looking at planning national transport strategies / infrastructure & factoring in autonomous trucks . . .

The road safety mob love the idea & are really pushing for them ( the theory being, most road accidents are due to human error, so remove the humans . . . )

My younger brother works for transurban In Melbourne and they are running trials on roads for autonomous vehicles.
 

Kiwi Pete

Member
Livestock Farmer
But as autonomous vehicles are a new concept, how do they know that mechanical failure wont be just as big a cause of accidents.
That's my biggest reservation as well.
Sure, there's plenty of dimwits on the road, but remembering the time I lost a rear wheel off my car, at least I heard the death-rattle and slowed down from whatever speed I'd been doing and looked in the mirror - found my rim in the middle of a silage paddock.
But - how's a computerer going to know?
I would hate to be the guy who signed off on an autonomous vehicle in the morning who then saw it crashed on the 6oclock news!!
 

Farmer Roy

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
NSW, Newstralya
But as autonomous vehicles are a new concept, how do they know that mechanical failure wont be just as big a cause of accidents.

Err
Because mechanical failure is a very minor cause of accidents now ?

Autonomous vehicles are not a new concept. JD have been playing with autonomous tractors for at least 10 or more yrs, Case have showed off a cabless high horsepower prototype tractor, & here you can buy an aftermarket kit to turn any modern tractor autonomous - just like you might buy an auto steer kit. Admittadly a lot more expensive & complex than auto steer, but on the shelf ready to buy now.

Autonomous vehicles have been in use in the mining industry ( both underground & open cut ) for a number of years now. VERY large VERY expensive machinery. Introduced partly for safety, partly to minimise labour requirements.

Many large warehouses / distribution networks around the world operate with completely autonomous fork lifts & pallet trucks running around.

At the moment here, legislators are requiring a human driver to be in self driving cars - ie you can't go to the pub get a skin full, sit in the back & let the car take you home. That is one step too far right now. But, I reckon the next generation or two of self driving cars will be completely independent of any need for human supervision.

Like it or not, they are coming.

Yes, there are all sorts of legal & ethical debates happening now regards to responsibility in the case of accidents. There are also ethical debates as to the programming of the decision making of the car eg does it swerve to miss hitting a pedestrian or does it make the safety of its occupants the priority?

All this stuff has been going on in the background for a while now. I can gaurantee that EVERY engineering, ethical, legal & safety question you could possibly ask has been or is being discussed in great detail at manufacturing, legislative, government & infrastructure level.

Like it or not
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 77 43.5%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 62 35.0%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 28 15.8%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.7%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 4 2.3%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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