US company Sabanto says its autonomy system will work with planters fitted with Precision Planting's Gen 3 20|20 system from the 2027 growing season, so a tractor it has retrofitted can plant without anyone in the cab, Future Farming reports. Growers watch the work remotely through Sabanto's Vehicle Mission Control interface.
The 20|20 is Precision Planting's in-cab display, which monitors and can control the planter. Sabanto's Vehicle Operating System reads the planter data it measures, row by row, and checks it against limits set by the grower; if any value falls outside them, the tractor stops. The company says it currently reads population, downforce and liquid application rate, with seed singulation and vacuum pressure in progress.
Founder and chief executive Craig Rupp said growers told the company that driving was not the hard part of autonomous planting; trusting the planter with nobody watching was. “If things aren’t working, pause,” he said.
