GUSS vs R150
Two spraying machines, one verified table. Every figure below is sourced and dated; vendor claims are labelled and kept apart from independent results.
California-built (Kingsburg) autonomous sprayer for orchards and vineyards, now a wholly owned John Deere subsidiary after an August 2025 acquisition that followed a three-year joint venture. GUSS navigates rows itself on GPS + LiDAR with no driver on board, but GUSS/Deere describe this as "supervised" autonomy — one operator monitors and can remotely intervene on up to 8 machines at once from a laptop. The line spans base GUSS (600-gal tank, diesel), Mini GUSS (smaller footprint for vineyards/high-density orchards/berries), Herbicide GUSS (sensor-triggered spot-spray weed control) and a 2024 fully electric option; sold and serviced only through John Deere dealers in the US and Australia, with 250+ units deployed globally as of the 2025 acquisition.
Best for: Large commercial orchard, vineyard and berry operations in the US or Australia (almonds, walnuts, pistachios, citrus, stone fruit, wine grapes) wanting to shrink a multi-tractor spray crew — GUSS's own case study shows a conventional 8-worker, 6-tractor medium-scale crew dropping to 2 workers and 4 GUSS units.Modular electric unmanned ground vehicle from XAG (Guangzhou, China) built around one chassis that swaps between three payloads — RevoSpray Ground 2 (150 L tank, 12 m spray width) for orchard/vineyard spraying, RevoMower 2.0 for cutting shrubs and reeds, and a 200 kg-capacity material-transport module — navigated by dual-antenna RTK plus stereo-vision/4D-radar obstacle sensing. Publicly sold since June 2021 (launched first in Japan) and still listed with full specs on XAG's own site, but it is XAG's 2022-generation rover — the company unveiled a separate, newer "R Series" (R100/R200) at Agritechnica 2025 as its current smart-farm rover line, and reseller stock fluctuates — buyers should confirm live availability directly with XAG or a dealer rather than assume stock.
Best for: Specialty-crop growers (orchards, vineyards) in a market with an active XAG distributor who want one chassis that swaps between spraying, mowing and material-transport payloads instead of buying separate dedicated machines.| GUSS Verified 2026-07-18 | R150 Verified 2026-07-19 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Task | Spraying | Spraying |
| Autonomy | Fully autonomous | Fully autonomous |
| Country of origin | United States | China |
| Availability | Available now | Available now |
| EU market | Pending | Pending |
| Lead time | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Last verified | 2026-07-18 | 2026-07-19 |
| Specifications | ||
| Power source | Diesel — John Deere 4.5L 173 hp Stage V engine (Tier 3 available for export); Herbicide GUSS uses a 4.5L 74 hp Stage V engine (no DEF); a fully electric variant (Electric GUSS, John Deere KREISEL batteries) launched 2024 | Battery-electric — two hot-swappable XAG B13960S smart batteries (48.1 V, 20,000 mAh / 962 Wh each) |
| Required tractor power | Not applicable — self-propelled 4WD/4-wheel-steer platform, not a tractor implement | Not required (self-propelled electric UGV) |
| Dimensions | GUSS: 24 ft long x 6 ft 4 in tall x 8 ft 3 in wide (standard tires; 7 ft 6 in narrow / 8 ft 4 in low-impact options). Herbicide GUSS: 23 ft 6 in long x 6 ft 4 in tall x 8 ft 4 in transport width, 15-19 ft adjustable spray width | 1695 × 1205 × 1205 mm (L×W×H) |
| Weight | GUSS: 11,660 lb empty. Herbicide GUSS: 12,460 lb empty (manufacturer brochure) | 188 kg net weight; 200 kg load capacity (excluding payload system) |
| Min farm size | Not disclosed as a number; manufacturer brochure markets GUSS at small, medium and large operation scales (its own "small scale" case study is still a professional commercial grower, not a hobby farm) | Not disclosed |
| Productivity | 90-gallon fuel cell gives approximately 13-14 hour run time; one operator can monitor/supervise up to 8 GUSS machines at once; manufacturer case study cites refill downtime cut from a typical 45 minutes to about 3 minutes | Not disclosed |
| Max speed | Not disclosed | 1.2 m/s (about 4.3 km/h) |
| Sensors | GPS + LiDAR for autonomous row navigation; user interface flags position/spray-rate/mobility faults with automatic visual and audible alerts; Herbicide GUSS adds multiple onboard weed-detection sensors for spot-spraying | Dual-antenna RTK GNSS (GPS, GLONASS, BDS-2/3, Galileo, QZSS) for cm-level positioning; stereo-vision front-obstacle detection; 4D imaging radar; headlamps for night operation |
| Price & model | ||
| Price (EUR) | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Native price | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Business model | Buy, sold and serviced exclusively through John Deere dealers in the US and Australia; Herbicide GUSS is also offered as a pay-for-service option alongside outright purchase. No unit price published. | Equipment purchase, direct or through XAG's distributor network (xa.com/en/about/agent). XAG does not publish a price on its own product pages. One US reseller (Ripping It Outdoors) lists the R150 sprayer configuration at about $32,000 — a single non-manufacturer, non-EU data point, not a verified current or EU price. |
| Ongoing cost | Diesel fuel, tires, spray consumables (nozzles, pump wear parts) and scheduled maintenance through the John Deere dealer network; costs not published | Not disclosed — no published consumable/battery-replacement costs found |
| Key outcome | ||
| Best verified result | Spray-crew labour and equipment at medium scale 8 workers to 2 workers (75% fewer); 12 pieces of towed/tractor equipment to 4 GUSS units · vendor | — No verified outcome |
| EU context | ||
| CE marking | Not disclosed — no CE-marking evidence found; confirmed commercial deployment is US and Australia only | Not disclosed — no CE-marking evidence found on manufacturer or dealer materials |
| Machinery Regulation | Not applicable — no evidence GUSS has been placed on the EU market | Not confirmed; would fall under Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 autonomous-machine provisions if placed on the EU market |
| CAP subsidy | Not applicable — no EU/CAP-linked deployment found; case-study savings above relate to US/Australia operations | Not directly tied to CAP eco-schemes; precision spraying could support national input-reduction eco-scheme measures where available |
"—" means the manufacturer has not disclosed the figure; we never estimate silently. Model either machine's payback with your own numbers on its ROI calculator page.