8R Autonomy vs Steward
Two autonomous tractor machines, one verified table. Every figure below is sourced and dated; vendor claims are labelled and kept apart from independent results.
Autonomy retrofit for the 8R tractor — supervised driverless tillage at scale. Deere's flagship autonomy moved to the second-generation kit on the 9RX at CES 2025; the second-gen kit retrofits MY2020.5+ 8R/8RX.
Best for: Very large arable operations already standardised on John Deere and Operations Center.US aftermarket kit (proprietary control unit + dual-GNSS + cameras/obstacle sensors) that converts existing 80-150hp tractors — John Deere 5E/5M/6E, Kubota M5 and Fendt 700-series (Deutz-Fahr in development) — into autonomous units for mowing, seeding, tillage, rolling, hay cutting and (via a Verdant Robotics partnership) precision spray. Installed in roughly a day (press reports range from a few hours to two days) with a five-minute calibration; sold through Trimble's Vantage dealer network in the US and Canada, with roughly 300 systems operational as of mid-2026. A July 2026 oversubscribed Series B led by Leaps by Bayer, with Yara participating, is funding expansion.
Best for: US/Canadian row-crop, broad-acre and sod/turf operations with an existing fleet of compatible 80-150hp tractors who want autonomy without buying new large-horsepower machines — Sabanto pitches "gangs" of several sub-150hp tractors as a lower-capital alternative to one big autonomous unit.| 8R Autonomy Verified 2026-07-16 | Steward Verified 2026-07-18 | |
|---|---|---|
| Overview | ||
| Task | Autonomous tractor | Autonomous tractor |
| Autonomy | Fully autonomous | Fully autonomous |
| Country of origin | United States | United States |
| Availability | Pilot / limited | Available now |
| EU market | Pending | Pending |
| Lead time | Not disclosed | Not disclosed |
| Last verified | 2026-07-16 | 2026-07-18 |
| Specifications | ||
| Power source | Diesel, 410 hp (8R 410) | Retrofit kit powered by the host tractor's own diesel powertrain — no dedicated power source of its own |
| Required tractor power | Is the tractor (up to 410 hp) | Aftermarket retrofit centred on 80-150hp tractors; compatible models include John Deere 5E (5075E, 5085E, 5090E, 5100E), 5M (5090M, 5095M, 5100M, 5105M, 5115M, 5120M, 5130M) and 6E (6105E, 6120E, 6135E cab-only) series, Kubota M5 (M5-091, M5-111), and Fendt 700-series (model year 2022+); Deutz-Fahr support is in development. Requires an electronic shuttle (PowrReverser) and factory grill guard on the host tractor |
| Dimensions | Standard 8R chassis | Not disclosed |
| Weight | ~15,000 kg | Not disclosed |
| Min farm size | 400 ha | Not disclosed |
| Productivity | Field-dependent; 24 h duty capable | Roughly 300 systems operational across North America as of mid-2026 (Farmers Weekly); one large customer runs 25 units simultaneously (AgFunderNews); sod-farm customer Super-Sod runs 11 units across the southeastern US (Trimble customer story) |
| Max speed | 42 km/h (road) | Up to 13 km/h in autonomous mode |
| Sensors | 6 stereo camera pairs · 360° obstacle detection | Trimble BX992 dual-GNSS receiver for heading determination with Trimble CenterPoint RTX correction — sub-4cm guidance accuracy maintained under partial tree canopy; cameras and obstacle-detection sensors; onboard AI processing unit; cellular connection to the cloud |
| Price & model | ||
| Price (EUR) | Not disclosed | ≈€55,000 upfront, ≈€8,500/yr (indicative conversion — no direct EU pricing published) |
| Native price | Not disclosed | US$65,000 equipment + installation, plus a US$10,000 annual subscription (Farmers Weekly-reported dealer pricing, 2026) |
| Business model | Subscription autonomy on owned/leased 8R (US pilot) | Buy the retrofit kit outright through Sabanto's dealer network (Trimble Vantage dealers in the US/Canada, e.g. Vanderloop Equipment for Fendt); requires a mandatory annual subscription for guidance/software |
| Ongoing cost | Not disclosed — subscription, region-dependent | US$10,000/year subscription covering guidance service and software updates (Farmers Weekly-reported dealer pricing); individual low-cost sensors can disable the system if damaged ("it only takes one US$20 sensor to put a tractor out of action" — Farmers Weekly) |
| Key outcome | ||
| Best verified result | Operator supervision 1 supervisor/several · vendor | Equipment capital investment (single-farm case study — Quint Pottinger, Kentucky) approximately 70% reduction in equipment capital investment · vendor |
| EU context | ||
| CE marking | Not filed for EU autonomous operation | Not disclosed — no CE-marking evidence found; confirmed deployments are US/Canada only |
| Machinery Regulation | EU autonomous approval not yet in place | Not applicable — no evidence Steward has been placed on the EU market |
| CAP subsidy | Not applicable pending EU availability | Not applicable — no EU/CAP-linked deployment found |
"—" 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.