John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX

Re:John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX by advisedwang on Tuesday January 30, 2024 @12:54PM (#39193300)

I don't think the parent comment necessarily misses that online connectivity is delivering a lot of features, value and ultimately yield. These improvements come with a downside of the risk of outages. The comment is highlighting that John Deere is deliberately increasing this risk so that they can keep farms maximally dependent on the company.

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Re:John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX by randomdata on Tuesday January 30, 2024 @01:01PM (#39193385)

> These improvements come with a downside of the risk of outages.

Which is why the current use of land tower connectivity is being expanded to use satellite service, providing greater redundancy and improved coverage. That reduces the risk of outage.

If you want no chance of outage on a modern tractor, you are going to have to find yourself a time machine and go way back in time. That ship sailed decades ago.

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Re:John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX by advisedwang on Tuesday January 30, 2024 @04:13PM (#39195917)

My read on mathgradthrow's comment was that it isn't concerned about outages caused by the network being down, but by more existential things like John Deer going bust, being a victim of cyberwar and so on. Of course he never says that so that's probably my own politics and fears coming into play.

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Re:John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX by mathgradthrow on Tuesday January 30, 2024 @09:00PM (#39198795)

that's correct, but I thought I was reasonably explicit.

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Re:John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX by randomdata on Tuesday January 30, 2024 @11:07PM (#39199767)

Well, even the ancient (John Deere) equipment isn't going to work when John Deere goes bust. Farm equipment breaks constantly. Where are the parts going to come from? John Deere bought out the only only full-line after market parts manufacturer several years ago, so if you are eyeing up that secondary market, think again.

I mean, sure, you can go to your local machine shop to get custom parts made. But you can also go to your local controls shop to get custom computers made. There are ways to deal with that – not the end of the world, just annoying. Also, John Deere has been sending one-way data via satellite to their tractors since the 1990s and have had two-way connectivity via cell networks since the 2000s, should cyber warfare ever break out...

So, it's not clear why he is concerned now all of a sudden. The concern is not unwarranted exactly, but we've already been thinking about it for decades to centuries. What is it about augmenting tower-based connectivity with satellite-based connectivity that instills a new fear?

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Re:John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX by advisedwang on Tuesday January 30, 2024 @11:15PM (#39199837)

One can imagine a cyber attack bricking every John Deere tractor in US overnight. That's a whole different ball game than the slow wearing out of machines and slow rising cost of repairs.

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Re:John Deere Announces Strategic Partnership with SpaceX by randomdata on Tuesday January 30, 2024 @11:18PM (#39199866)

Maybe, but theoretically you've already been able to do that for decades. Again, what's the new concern brought about by using satellites over towers (or even other satellites, which John Deere also utilizes for communication with tractors)?

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