From flame-wielding robots to driverless tractors, autonomous technology is fueling a robot revolution across America’s farmlands. While much of the agricultural advancements were produced in California, farmers in the state are frustrated by the fact they aren’t legally allowed to utilize the technology.
“It's crazy,” said Larry Jacobs, who has been farming in California for the past 40 years. “It doesn't make any sense.”
It doesn't make any sense.
Larry Jacobs, California farmer speaking about the state's prohibition on driverless tractors and other autonomous agricultural equipment
California's ban on autonomous agricultural equipment dates back to 1970s
When it comes to farming equipment, an operator must be “stationed” at the controls, according to California safety regulations. Those rules were written nearly 50 years ago, long before autonomous tech was developed. While the original intention wasn’t to ban new technology, that is essentially what has happened. Though these agricultural innovations were largely developed in California, farmers across the state are not allowed to fully benefit from them, even though California produces more than 40% of the country’s vegetables and nearly 70% of the nation’s fruits and nuts, according to data from the USDA Census of Agriculture.
Farmers warn lack of labor will lead to higher food prices
Jacobs says the prospect of relying on autonomous machinery across his six California farms would help solve a growing dilemma for him and others in the agriculture industry.
“Our biggest problem is labor,” he said. “If we don't have people to pick the crops, your cost of apples [is] going to go up, your cost of tomatoes [is] going to go up, all our food costs are going to go up, and that's only going to get worse.”
Thousands of farming jobs likely to remain vacant over next decade
More than 88,000 farming positions are expected to go unfilled every year through the next decade, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, farmers aren’t getting any younger, with the average age now nearly 60 years old.
"Farmers just can't find people to fill these jobs and technology, like this, is absolutely essential to drive agriculture in the state forward," said Igino Cafiero, a leading engineer at John Deere. "This is about attracting the next generation of farmers."
John Deere, one of the biggest names in agricultural equipment, began researching autonomous technology more than two decades ago in hopes of ultimately unveiling its own line of self-driving robots. The company recently unveiled its latest autonomous innovations, which include a lawn mower, heavy-duty hauler, and two types of self-driving tractors. So far, the company has only rolled out its tractors to customers, with promises to release more autonomous equipment in the coming years.
Those tractors are currently being used by farmers in 11 states but not California. The company says it will hold off on actually selling its self-driving tools across the state because of California's current restrictions.
"We want to do things right," said Clint Masterson, product manager for the orchard autonomy product at John Deere.
"That means working with [the] California legislature to make sure that the law is clear before we release a product."
California regulators cited 'safety concerns' in opting to let autonomous tech ban continue across state's agricultural industry
In 2022, another farming equipment company, Monarch Tractor, formally asked California regulators to change the state's rules in hopes of allowing autonomous equipment onto farms.
Monarch Tractor boasts the world's first fully electric, driver-optional tractor, which the company first rolled out to farmers roughly three years ago. Since then, Monarch Tractor says it has sold more than 500 autonomy-enabled units across more than 20 states and four continents.
At a public hearing on the issue, the company's CEO Praveen Penmetsa told state regulators "there is ambiguity in the existing regulations." He went on to say, "we are an industry that is asking for regulation."
The request went before California’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, a seven-member body appointed by the Governor that is responsible for setting employee safety standards for Cal/OSHA, which enforces workplace safety and health regulations throughout the state.
Despite the urging from Monarch Tractor to revise the state's regulations, the state board voted four to three to reject the request, citing safety concerns.
Roughly a year later, another state regulatory industry, the California Public Utilities Commission, gave the green light for driverless cars to begin shuttling paying passengers across busy roadways in California. To date, more than 30 companies, including Tesla, Waymo, and Amazon’s Zoox, have acquired state permits with the DMV to test their driverless vehicles on public roadways across California.
Farmers, meanwhile, are still waiting for state approval to utilize similar technology to power considerably slower-moving robots on wide-open fields, free of pedestrians and vehicular traffic.
“The risk and the danger factor of an autonomous piece of equipment out in the farm field is a lot lower than an autonomous car driving around in a city,” Jacobs said. "It doesn’t make any sense."
Monarch Tractor, based in Dublin, remains the only company in California to receive an 'experimental variance' from the state, allowing it to operate driverless tractors on two fields in Livermore and St. Helena. The five-year exemption, which Cal/OSHA awarded to Monarch Tractor in 2021, expires in August 2026. While Cal/OSHA initially hoped the variance would yield useful data to "evaluate autonomous tractor safety around workers," state regulators with the agency later noted people have not been working in the fields where the autonomous tractors have been operating. Cal/OSHA, however, opted to let the variance continue, saying "it is still able to gather data and knowledge on the operation of the tractors."
California forms advisory committee to study prospects of allowing autonomous agriculture equipment
In the wake of that 2022 state vote that kept the state's agricultural safety regulations intact, regulators with California’s Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board pledged to form a task force to study the issue. Three years later, however, that advisory committee has only met three times and hasn’t issued any recommendations on how to best usher autonomous tech into California agriculture equipment.
The risk and the danger factor of an autonomous piece of equipment out in the farm field is a lot lower than an autonomous car driving around in a city.
Larry Jacobs, owner of Jacobs Farms, which grows a long list of vegetables, fruits, and flowers
Violating ban on autonomous tech calls for hefty fines, but California hasn't issued a single citation
Those who violate the state's current ban on driverless tractors and other autonomous robots could face fines of up $16,285 per violation, according to regulations outlined by Cal/OSHA, the state agency responsible for enforcing workplace safety and health mandates. Violations the state deems more "serious," that cause injury or even death, could result in fines reaching as much as $25,000 per occurrence.
Some companies operating in California, that do not wish to be identified, told the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit they regularly sell driverless tractors and other autonomous agricultural equipment to farmers in the state, despite the fact the technology appears to violate California's current safety regulations. While the machinery has been sold to farmers across California, not a single state fine has ever been issued relating to the ban, according to information the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit obtained from California's Dept. of Industrial Relations, which oversees Cal/OSHA.
In an internal memo obtained by the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit, leaders with Cal/OSHA appeared to concede that operating autonomous farming equipment without an actual human at the controls would only constitute a state safety violation if actual workers were in the area or had access to it. Meaning, if part of a farm is completely closed off to employees, the state believes it would be difficult to cite someone for using self-driving robots.
"Per case law…Cal/OSHA must prove employee exposure to a hazard for it to be able to cite an employer," wrote Cal/OSHA Director Debra Lee in the memo dated Aug. 30, 2024. "If there are no employees at a worksite and no employee access to a worksite, autonomous agricultural vehicle usage at that site does not constitute a violation."
Lee declined repeated interview requests with the NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit.
Farmers argue the apparent wiggle room the state appears to be offering is still far too vague and lacks the kind of clarity needed to plant real innovation.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” said California Assemblyman Juan Alanis (R-Modesto), who represents parts of California’s Central Valley, one of the most prolific agricultural regions in the world.
"We, in Sacramento, need to continuously start changing and adapting our laws to basically answer what's going on in industry."
Lawmaker seeks to lift California's ban on autonomous tractors
Alanis says he now plans to talk with his fellow lawmakers to craft new legislation that would lift the ban and allow farmers to utilize a similar kind of autonomous tech that driverless car companies have been harnessing for years.
“It’s the future,” he said. “The longer that we wait or we sit on our hands, we're going to have other states, other countries that are going to move forward with this because we're stubborn.”
Jacobs says welcoming autonomous tech into agriculture isn't just about creating convenience. For him, it's about planting seeds for the next generation of farmers.
“It's time for our legislators to take a look at that law and bring it up to speed to what's happening today,” Jacobs said.
“Crops are getting left in the fields because people don't have enough labor to get it done.”
Watch our entire investigative series
- Part 1: Driverless cars seek San Francisco expansion despite worries tech is unsafe
- Part 2: CPUC votes to expand driverless car operations in San Francisco
- Part 3: San Francisco city attorney files motion to pump the brakes on driverless cars
- Part 4: Google's Waymo says insurance data shows its driverless cars are safer than humans
- Part 5: Hit-and-run driver strikes pedestrian, tossing her into path of Cruise car in San Francisco
- Part 6: Driverless trucks and robot deliveries promise fewer traffic jams than robotaxis
- Part 7: Cruise says its robotaxis can now better detect emergency vehicles
- Part 8: California DMV orders Cruise's driverless cars off the road
- Part 9: Driverless cars immune from traffic tickets in California under current laws
- Part 10: GM's Cruise lays off nearly 25% of its workforce
- Part 11: Waymo's driverless cars surpass 7 million miles, but are they safer than human drivers?
- Part 12: Cruise probe blames poor internet, bad leadership, and "flawed" decisions for company's woes
- Part 13: Driverless Cruise car accused of almost hitting 7 yr old after similar close call involving kids
- Part 14: Cruise offers to pay $112,500 in fines to settle claims driverless car company misled regulators
- Part 15: Uber Eats now uses Waymo Self-Driving cars to offer driverless deliveries
- Part 16: Bills aimed at closing traffic ticket loophole for driverless cars get initial green light
- Part 17: School crossing guards say they've had to dodge driverless cars to avoid being hit
- Part 18: Cruise ordered to pay $112,500 in penalties for withholding info from regulators
- Part 19: Waymo waitlist over in SF, all can hail driverless cars
- Part 20: SF Mayor vows to hold driverless car companies accountable after NBC Bay Area report
- Part 21: San Francisco govt. officials meet with Waymo to discuss safety concerns near schools
- Part 22: California DMV gears up to allow driverless trucking despite calls to restrict high-tech big rigs
- Part 23: Cruise to abandon robotaxi business after tumultuous year
- Part 24: Waymo's robotaxis surpass 25 million miles, but are they safer than humans?
- Part 25: Waymo robotaxi rear-ended in fatal multi-car collision in San Francisco
- Part 26: Multi-car wreck slams into Waymo, marks first time a driverless car is involved in deadly collision
- Part 27: Waymo's driverless cars reach Silicon Valley, but when can you hail a ride to SFO airport?
- Part 28: Waymo says its driverless cars are better than humans at avoiding crashes
- Part 29: Farmers fuming over California's ban on driverless tractors, other autonomous robots
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