'The Android of agriculture': Monarch Tractor CEO Praveen Penmetsa on the future of farming

We spent a lot of time here on Decoder talking about electric vehicles and the future of cars and we’re usually talking about passenger vehicles or maybe cargo vans. But there’s another huge industry that can also reap the benefits of electrified transportation: agriculture. 

I co-hosted the Code Conference this week where I had the opportunity to hangout onstage with Monarch Tractor CEO Praveen Penmetsa. Honestly, this was one of my favorite conversations of the entire event. 

We are utterly reliant on farming as a species, and farming is utterly reliant on tractors. If we don’t have tractors, we don’t have food. But electrifying farms is hard, and Praveen explained how he and Monarch are trying to tackle that challenge. The ambition is to compete in an open way with closed platforms like John Deere, and Praveen said his goal for the Monarch platform is to be the Android of agriculture. 

Links: 

• Electric robot tractors powered by Nvidia AI chips are here
• John Deere turned tractors into computers — what’s next?
• John Deere commits to letting farmers repair their own tractors (kind of)
• Monarch Tractors to be manufactured by Foxconn
• Foxconn begins rolling first Monarch electric tractors off assembly lines in Lordstown
• A sneak peek into Monarch Tractor's vision-based AI technology
• CNH Industrial, Monarch Tractor agree electrification technologies deal

Transcript: https://www.theverge.com/e/23659941

Credits:

Decoder is a production of The Verge and is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt. It was edited by Callie Wright. 

The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Our Editorial Director is Brooke Minters and our Executive Producer is Eleanor Donovan.

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