POST FALLS, Idaho — A Post Falls company says they're leading the way when it comes to driver-less tractors. The owner of this company says that allows them to run multiple tractors on a single field and they are easier to transport too.
"I don't know...How do you explain it? Just a moment of 'Wow' haha,” Bill Farb the Co-founder of Farb Guidance Systems said.
It's exactly what Farb has envisioned for the last five years. He and his brother are the co-founders of Farb Guidance Systems.
They grew up on a farm in Illinois and Bill eventually became a computer programmer. Several years ago, as GPS and technology became more prominent in the farming industry, the light bulb went off.
"We said, 'golly, we could make something that just drives itself and do the farming,” Farb said.
That’s how Farb Guidance Systems was born.
Their system uses GPS creating a map of field that needs to be worked.
"It knows exactly where it's supposed to go."
After hooking up a computer to one of these small skid steers, it's off and running.
"It drives itself using artificial intelligence."
Farb says that there are existing larger tractors that are GPS controlled. In those models, the farmer still must remain in the driver's seat.
With theirs, the farmer is free to work on something else.
Farb says there are similar driverless tractor ideas out there, but nothing is like theirs.
"None of them are available to buy. None of them are out there working. Ours is working."
They've tilled and planted thousands of acres so far.
All that, Farb says, amounts to a lot of efficiency for farmers...and a safer method that reduces human error.
A method he and his brother hope catches on.