FoA 241: From Drives to Driverless with Craig Rupp of Sabanto

Craig Rupp is the CEO and founder of Sabanto. Prior to founding Sabanto he was a cofounder of 640 Labs where FieldView Drive was originally created. The first part of today’s episode will be about Craig’s journey at 640 Labs and its eventual acquisition by Climate Corp. Despite all of these impressive innovations and industry game-changers, that’s not the only thing he joins us to share about today. His current project, Sabanto, is gaining momentum and continuing to develop its autonomous tractors.    “In the last month, I was just amazed as to how mature our software is and how hands-off we have become. The little tractor that we use is very dependable and our software is very mature.” - Craig Rupp   The Sabanto tractors can participate in tillage, cultivation and tine weed and are one of the “hardest working tractors in the US” according to Craig. While initially they required intensive monitoring they have continued to develop and allow for more autonomy. By continuing to develop the technology and allowing Sabanto to take care of some procedures, farmers will be able to repurpose labor needs, expenses and focus on their own efficiency.     “I think everyone’s waiting around to see what the industry brings them…..I wanted to bring autonomy into agriculture and I wanted to completely change the landscape of agriculture.” - Craig Rupp    In conventional farming with large manual equipment, Craig feels that we have “peaked in horsepower” as an industry. While the previous objective for agricultural equipment was to cover as many acres as possible leading to larger equipment, now we see Sabanto prioritizing efficiency, ease of use, connectivity and decreased soil compaction. Craig looks forward to continuing to spread the use of autonomous tractors in more locations and on more operations.   This Week on The Future of Agriculture Podcast: Meet Craig Rupp, founder and CEO of Sabanto Learn about the journey and major successes Craig has experienced in his career with agriculture technology Explore the many uses and value Sabanto can bring to a farming operation Follow Sabanto at @sabantoag on Twitter Join the FOA Community! Be sure to join the new Future of Agriculture Membership for even more valuable information on the future of the ag industry. I’m sending out my email newsletter on a more regular basis, focusing on what I call the front lines of agtech: where product meets producer. You can sign up for that at www.FutureOfAg.com. There’s an email icon in the center of the page, just click on that and it will take you to a signup form. Do you have suggestions for topics to be explored? Tweet them to me @timhammerich or email them to [email protected].  Find us online! Future of Agriculture Website AgGrad Website