How John Deere is bringing the farm to you... virtually

[SOUND] JOHN DEERE was not traditionally a company you would associate with CES, the world's largest technology show until last year when the company had a giant booth that was really the top of the show featuring an AI sprayer, and it was self driving, and really everybody wanted to try this thing out. But, with CES 2021, being all digital, what a company is gonna do to bring the same experience into our homes. So, I'm talking right now to Julian Sanchez, from John Dia, who's gonna talk us through a couple of the ways to bring that same experience into our homes. Julian, thank you so much for joining us today. Glad to be with you.>> How are you gonna be able to get the scale, the size, the experience of all of the new technology that you're launching into our homes this year? I'm so interested to know because A lot of companies do virtual press conferences, but you guys are taking it one step further and doing virtual reality. Right? That's right. You know, it's been a fun like for the last 10 years we've we've talked and executed the idea of Digitizing farming. And the CSA gave us the opportunity to actually try it out and literally digitize the farm and try to bring it into your home. So there's a couple of ways in which we're going to go about that we've actually created an environment VR environment and so a lot of folks will be able to experience it through VR headsets and get a fully immersive environment of the farm, and a lot of the technologies that make a farm run in today's world. But for the broader CES audience as well, that's Same simulation, that same digital farm, you'll be able to experience it in our digital booth in the CES website. Excellent. So give me an idea of what that experience is going to involve in terms of the new technology that you're showcasing specifically Last year, we came to see us with this theme of farmers want to do more with less and technologies the way that unlocks that more with less. And so this year we're keeping true to that theme. We're going to bring, you're going to be able to tour it Eight RS tractor which is an incredibly sophisticated machine that has telematics artificial intelligence. And we're also going to showcase a planter which actually hooks on to the tractor And the relevance here is that we wanna really highlight the tractor and the planter together or the technology that really kicks off the journey of a seed. And so this concept of precision and technology to do more with less You know, planting seeds, it's a very, very precise job. These planters, this is just obviously, a toy version of it, but the big ones are about 120 feet wide with 48 independent robots, and each one of those robots has to place a seed exactly where it's intended to go, right. Planting is not like feeding pigeons at the park where you just kind of throw the seed up in the air and it lands anywhere. Each one of these robots has to open a furrow. place that seed in there, close the furrow geospatially tag where that seed went, sent that information up to the cloud so that farmers can evaluate and make improvements for next year or later in the season about what they're doing ergonomically. So in that virtual experience you will be able to see how all of this technology comes together, again, to kickoff the journey of the seed. Fantastic. And obviously you have those models, [LAUGH] very small models there. Is there a way for people who do go through the virtual experience to actually get an idea of how How big these machines actually are, because I think to me, at last, you see as really seeing the scale, it was overwhelming in so many ways. Is there a way that that is presented in virtual reality at all? Or is that something still that we have to wait for actually,when we can get together. You will get a sense through some of the virtual simulations. I mean, they'll be markers of a human in the cab relative to the size of the vehicle. So that'll give you an idea. But here's a good rule of thumb. It's a great question because when I started working for John Deere, a lot of my relatives asked me,So how big is this stuff? Right, and so I always just sort of said to them, I said just imagine the biggest possible SUV or truck you can imagine and multiply it times 5 or times 10, and that's the size of To the scale of the equipment we're dealing with, and and by the way, the exciting part of air is that it's not just big equipment but it's also very, very intelligent. So you're sort of combining that physical mass and power with AI intelligence. Tell me a little bit more about what that AI can actually do. I mean, last year with the sprayer It was a lot of self driving technology knowing where to distribute but What is this year's developments going to do in terms of AI? Well, what a highlight actually. One of the things that we're very proud of is that the harvesting combine to x nine one and Innovation Award this year at CES and that combine, that's a big harvesting machine has 17,000 parts and again, this is Just imagine the biggest machine possible, factory on wheels you can imagine and then double the size in your mind. This thing is really, really big, but in addition to being big,um, in following this idea of doing more with less because it's very efficient. It also is powered by AAI so in real time this machine, this factory on wheel, Can self optimize, and and sort of mimic the intelligence of an experienced human operator that's maybe has over 200 hours of experience of harvesting in between Machines it can mimic that knowledge and that experience and sort of self optimize. So again, very proud of this, the receiving the Innovation Award for the x nine. It's one of our most sophisticated pieces of equipment Again, not only our largest piece of equipment but also one of our most sophisticated and most intelligence. On that note, tell me a little bit more about how the pandemic has changed the technology and the approach that john deere takes in order to make it safer for farmers and associated people on the farms. One of the really, really neat things about our our machines and our equipment is that they are all equipped with remote monitoring and remote access type of capabilities, right? So this means that in some of our equipment like the combine You can actually see what's happening in the combine in the in the in the cab of a combine under settings, you can see those settings remotely and you can even adjust them remotely from your mobile phone. Also, if you have troubles or any kind of maintenance maintenance issues, you can use something called remote support where literally you can you know Check out what's actually going on in the vehicle and do a lot of diagnostic work remotely. We have seen a 100% increase in the usage of those types of remote monitoring and remote diagnostic tools. Throughout the pandemic, so it's it's exciting because it was something that was adding value before but really, really it's kind of hit the sweet spot in, in unlocking the ability to socially distance and, and still keep farmers growing going Absolutely. And do you think it's a trend that will definitely continue after the pandemic has resolved is automation or remote monitoring? This is the future right? This is here to stay? 100% it's an example. We've seen a lot of examples. Throughout the pandemic of things that trends that get accelerated, right? So again, this was something that we were already doing. It was something farmers were requesting and were using. But it's it's really opened their eyes to the value that it brings Again, not just during a pandemic, but during regular operations, the ability to not just remote, but also configure some of this very, very sophisticated equipment from a remote capability and remote location. Well, Julian, this all sounds like a lot of fun, especially when it comes to the virtual experience through the headset now If participants through CES 2021, or even just, everyday people want to take a look, is there a way that we can kind of get access to the VR experience or you can have some sort of materials that we can kind of get a sense of what's on show If you just visit our website in the CES virtual environment, you will have access to all of the simulations that that we've put together to give you a view You have the planter, the tractor will have a simulation in again, and you can do this from your laptops, at home where you can, we'll put you under ground and you'll be able to really kind of see what's going on from an agronomic perspective of where the steeds go. So you will be able to see all of the cool technology and experience all of the interesting things that we're going to be showcasing. Through accessing registering for CES and accessing our virtual or virtual systems. Fantastic. I can't wait to go and try it all out. It looks really, really exciting. And those models I know a lot of kids and big kids who would love to have those in their homes. So if you ever make the smaller models of the harvesters, the and sprays and things like that, There'll be a lot of happy people, [LAUGH], with a little bit of John Deere in their lives. So thank you so much for joining me, Julian, it's been a pleasure. And best of luck with CES, and into 2021. My pleasure, thank you.