Farmers See Demonstration Of Driverless Tractor

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28936, 2 July 1959, Page 10

Farmers See Demonstration Of Driverless Tractor

(From Our Own Reporter)

PALM. NORTH, July 1. In a park a few minutes walk away from the centre of Palmerston North fanners attending the Massey College sheepfarmers’ conference today watched a driverless tractor in operation. The radio-controlled tractor developed in England and imported by the Ford Motor Company of New Zealand on a temporary licence for six months was making its first public demonstration in New Zealand. Professor A. L. Rae, head of the sheep husbandry department at Massey College, who introduced the demonstration, said that at present the tractor might be regarded as something of “a gimmick,” but then it was not so many years ago that the aeroplane was almost in the same class After the engine of the tractor was started manually, Mr D Douche, a white-uniformed tractor demonstrator, with a transmitter with aerial extended strapped in front of him, set the tractor in motion by moving a switch on the control panel on top A the transmitter. As he moved other switches, the tractor turned and wheeled past bales of hay lying about the park. The tractor was carrying a carry-all tray with a few bales of hay on it which was also lifted and lowered by remote control. Later, when the tray was detached from the tractor. Mr Douche neatly backed the machine into a set of gang mowers by remote control and when they were hitched on, again set the tractor in motion. Through the transmitter the operator has eight separate channels of contact with the receiver on the tractor. One

channel allows the tractor to be turned to the right, another to the left, two others operate the clutch, and another two raise or lower implements. Farmers watching the demonstration were told that, in England. these tractors had sometimes been operated by a man who was driving another tractor in the same paddock. Mr Douche mentioned a figure of a mile as the possible range of operation. *

Mr W. J. Toomey, New Zealand sales manager for tractors and equipment for the Ford Company, said that it was probable that the tractor would be taken to Christchurch at an early date It would also be seen in operation at the final of the New Zealand ploughing championships at Hastings later this month.