Monarch Tractor Preps For Layoffs and Warns Employees It May 'Shut Down' (techcrunch.com)
- Reference: 0180156003
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/11/20/1752232/monarch-tractor-preps-for-layoffs-and-warns-employees-it-may-shut-down
- Source link: https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/19/monarch-tractor-preps-for-layoffs-and-warns-employees-it-may-shut-down/
> The memo comes after Monarch Tractor was already cutting some positions over the last few weeks at its California corporate facilities and remote teams in India and Singapore, according to multiple former employees who spoke with TechCrunch on the condition of anonymity.
>
> Monarch Tractor was founded in 2018 by a team that included a former top executive at Tesla's first gigafactory and Carlo Mondavi, a scion of the famous winemaking family. The company raised at least $220 million, including $133 million in 2024, as it pursued a goal of making "driver optional" autonomous tractors that could perform tasks at places like wineries and other fruit farms.
[1] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/22/12/04/0356236/driverless-electric-robot-tractors-are-here-powered-by-nvidia-ai-chips
[2] https://techcrunch.com/2025/11/19/monarch-tractor-preps-for-layoffs-and-warns-employees-it-may-shut-down/
I blame the scientists (Score:2)
Glueing the rice on the raisins was bound to end badly
Should have invested (Score:2)
In NVDA....
From the 2022 Slashdot article
"NVIDIA is proud of its role in the first commercially available smart tractor (which began rolling off the production line Thursday). Monarch Tractor's MK-V "combines electrification, automation, and data analysis to help farmers reduce their carbon footprint, improve field safety, streamline farming operations, and increase their bottom lines," according to NVIDIA's blog.
NVIDIA's been touting the ability to accelerate machine learning applications with its low-powe
Electric tractors? (Score:2)
I'm puzzled by this. Monarch was trying to do two things:
1. Sell electric tractors
2. Sell autonomous tractors.
It seems lots of other companies similarly conflate "autonomous" with "battery electric". Anyone know why they do this? I mean, I know it was Tesla who first made waves with self-driving(ish) cars and since it was Tesla, of course they were electric. But these seem like two different products with two different sets of challenges to me.
Surely if you wanted to de-risk your autonomous tractor progra
Used/old tractor makers are doing fine. (Score:1, Interesting)
Yeah, a $773,000 deal soured into breach-of-contract claims, exposing the folly of over-engineered e-gadgets and proprietary DRM that locks out repairs and dooms machines to early graves, exactly what most farmers HATE.
Enter the unsung heroes: venerable tractor makers like sometimes Ford and International Harvester, whose mechanical marvels shun "stupid electronic shit." These workhorses, think the pre-DRM 1960s John Deere 4020 or the indomitable IH 1066, don't have DRM shackles, letting farmers wield wre
Re: (Score:2)
You might be the only person in this country that is an expert on farmers, tractors, IT, and social justice issues. You're a regular renaissance man.
Re: (Score:2)
Some of us are. I did my BS in computer science. Spent 15 years in IT working mostly with Linux servers.
I now run a large farm. My background is actually a really good fit for farming. In fact I think farming would be a good fit for quite a few Linux enthusiasts and makers.
Re: (Score:2)
Did you inherit the farm, or went into it green?
Re: (Score:2)
Unfortunately there are really only two practical ways to get into farming these days.
Re: (Score:1, Interesting)
*YAWN* I love the smell of jealousy in the morning.
Re: (Score:3)
We still have running tractors from the 1940s and 50s. John Deere two-cylinder "putt putt" tractors.
If there was a golden age of tractors, it's hard to pin it down. Yes the 4020 was and is a great tractor, but it's not a tractor you'd want to run all day every day. It's loud and the cab was never comfortable. The Deere 50-series tractors from the 1980s were pretty good, and the cabs were comfortable and quiet. In the 90s there were some good ones too but ideas on what looked good were really weird in th
Re: (Score:3)
Golden age tractors don't have cabs. Many of them are still in use because they're built to be reliable and designed to be repairable by their owners if something did break. It's sad that so many of the companies that made them went out of business, probably because no one ever needed to buy a new tractor from them after the first purchase and they never got into the business of selling equipment with whiz-bang features that was otherwise unreliable and needed replacing every decade or so.
Re: (Score:2)
Chinese machines are already making inroads where they aren't banned. You can get a lot of decent construction equipment from there too. That's the danger here, by the time Western companies get around to producing EV tractors with all the advantages they bring, the market will be saturated with mature and competitively priced products.
As for durability, some EVs have proven to be very fixable. Nissan Leafs are a good example. Relatively simple, not difficult to work on, drivetrain that is separate from eve
Re: (Score:2)
Electric motors can certainly last. Assuming they don't take a bath, an all-electric solution, kept simple, could easily become reliable long lived vintage in the future.
When I say kept simple, I'm talking about no big-ass computer in the middle. No requirements of connectivity. Stuff like GPS autonomy as an optional extra hardware add-on.
Re: (Score:2)
The other option for kept simple is make the central chassis computer fully open source. Top to bottom. So then any and every tinkerer can maintain all parts.