While India waits for Tesla to arrive in the country, it looks like Mahindra is set to steal the thunder with its driverless tractors. Yes, you heard that absolutely right.
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd plans to launch its driverless tractors in 2019 while it would launch a driver assist model in 2018, an official confirmed on Tuesday.
Pawan Goenka, MD, Mahindra & Mahindra said that a quasi driverless model would be launched and following that a fully driverless tractor would be launched.
The technology has been developed at Mahindra’s Research Valley in the country.
Goenka said the challenge before the company to launch the driverless model is to get the government's permission as well as the vehicle's final cost.
He said the company has already moved the central government for approval.
He hoped the government would soon draft the policy and the framework for such driverless vehicles. Goenka said the cost will be higher due to imported components and the company is working to bring it down.
The company plans to offer the driverless tractor technology across its range of tractors from 20 horsepower to 100 horsepower over a period of time.
Features
- GPS technology ensures tractor moves along a straight line
- It moves without any steering input via auto-headland turn
- Automatically picks and drops the work tool attached at the back
- Its movement can be locked to a specific perimeter via Geofence locking
- Remotely control the movement of tractor, as well as stop/start engine via tablet
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