In a barren California field, an autonomous articulated dump truck has worn a singular pair of tracks as it has operated its programmed maneuvers simulating the loading, traveling, and dumping required in a quarry operation.
The John Deere 460 P Tier articulated dump truck is a development model introduced to construction editors at an event in November 2024, details of which were embargoed prior to the company’s official announcement at CES 2025. Hosted by Deere subsidiary Blue River Technology on its proving grounds outside of San Jose, California, the demonstration also included autonomous agriculture and lawn care equipment. Deere used the event to emphasize application of its second-generation autonomous software across its three major product groups, including construction.
In a major step toward this goal, Blue River developed this generation of technology to be retrofit on machines already in the field, said Hindman.
“Field retrofittability is the notion that you can not only get this technology if you buy a new machine out of the factory, but you should also be able to enjoy this technology if you own a tractor and want to put this kit on it,” Hindman said. “It increases the size of the market for us, which is a good thing for us from an economic perspective, but it also makes it possible for customers to obtain the technology from a cash flow perspective. They don’t have to buy a new tractor.”
The technology has been “rearchitected” to allow it to be retrofitted, said Willie Pell, CEO of Blue River Technology.
“The computer and cameras are relatively inexpensive,” he said. “[They are] designed as a kit to be added so that tractors that have already been sold can become autonomous.”
The linchpin of the generational advance in the technology, said Pell, is advancements in the application of stereo cameras. Stereo cameras act like eyes, he said, taking two images and creating a single image. In order to obtain better depth of vision, which increases accuracy and safety of autonomous operation, the cameras need to be moved farther apart. That accuracy has a peak distance, however, past which angular differences in the camera inputs create errors in the single image that the software can generate.
“As you go wider, you reach a point where it’s physically impossible to make a housing that is robust to correct for the angular errors,” Pell said. “Your accuracy and depth at range has this peak, then falls off.”
Blue River’s solution was to replace the dual cameras with an array of cameras that create a “halo” around the cab of the machine.
“[The] camera array is a system of 16 different cameras that provide triple overlap. A normal stereo camera has double overlap,” Pell said. “We can get incredibly accurate depth maps at large range with a mechanically lightweight, no-moving-parts, cost-effective solution. We’re pushing more intelligence into the software.”
Why put autonomous technology on a dump truck?
The 460 articulated dump truck is Deere’s first attempt at fielding an autonomous piece of construction equipment, and the company chose to focus on the enclosed environment of quarries. The machines are often operated by the least experienced operator in a quarry, according to Deere officials. Eliminating the need for an ADT operator enables a quarry operation to deploy its experienced operators on excavators and loaders, for example.
Quarry productivity hinges on keeping rocks moving from the source site to the crusher. ADTs traverse the route from the stationary excavator or loader to the stationary crusher. Any problems along the route affect productivity. Mike Vorster explains the “The Cost of Downtime” when a single truck goes fail to function reliably.
The critical need for reliability in the numerous ADTs involved in a quarry operation moved Deere to choose this machine for autonomy.
How does the autonomous Deere ADT work?
Autonomous ADT operation begins with the technology and software, what Deere calls its “tech stack,” that the company has developed and deployed on its ag equipment, according to Maya Sripadam, senior product manager, autonomy for Blue River. These on-board components—perception, navigation, vehicle controls—are paired with Deere’s Operation Center, formally called JDLink.
The system uses the company’s Starfire Guidance and StarLink for data transmission, giving it a complete control system, said Kristen Camden, ADT specialist.
“We are removing the operator,” she said, “so anything having to do with steering, velocity control, or dump actions is upgraded with the right functionally hardware. Hardware is ruggedized.”
The site manager uploads a map of the quarry site into the Operation Center “that define[s] the route of the truck along with the load and dump points,” said Sripadam. “[The manager] creates a ‘mission’: For example, go from load point A to load zone B and follow this road.”
Autonomous operation is then launched through Operations Center.
Deere officials emphasized that the ADT is a development machine and would not identify a release date for the retrofit hardware. It said it is currently testing autonomous 460 P Tier ADTs in several quarries. It said retrofits would be done by Deere dealers.
“Our autonomy strategy relies on partnering with our John Deere dealers to make sure that we’re working with customers to identify the right equipment and solution for their application,” said Kasey Kelly, ADT specialist. “It also allows us to make sure that we can build a truck out of our factory that is autonomy ready so we can retrofit the kit onto any truck.”
