Demand Is Booming for New No Tech, Repairable Tractor

jqpabc123

John Deere’s repair monopoly I's not the technology itself that they object to --- it's the fact that it is being used (patents, DMCA, etc.) to rape them on repairs.

snypher

>they went out and bought machinery from 1987 so that it wouldn’t have a computer on it That's fine and all but Deere still carries parts for that 1987 tractor, so you can keep it running. Ursa will probably be gone in 10 years?; it doesn't matter how mechanical the system is if you can't get new parts anyways.

crabmusket

I'd love to see an Oxide Computer Company but for tractors. Open source firmware and tooling, but in this case the design would have to focus on repairability, transparency, and use of easily replaceable components for compute and sensors, similar to how the mechanical components are chosen. Oxide goes to great lengths to allow you to own your servers and operate them in an airgapped environment. Could a tractor be built to operate airgapped even with onboard tech? Or to be able to connect to a local base station over e.g. LoRaWAN instead of the cloud?

randycupertino

Now do a no-tech highest quality repairable washing machine, no tech high-quality repairable refrigerator and no tech high quality HVAC!!