A Cal/OSHA advisory committee met for two days recently to continue its deliberations about how or even whether to regulate the increasingly sophisticated autonomous technology used in agriculture. Proponents say the machines work better than a human mind in hazard recognition and eliminate many hazards created by having employees on tractors. Skeptics, mostly representing labor, …
Agriculture employers have been urging the Board to revise the current regulation about autonomous equipment, which dates back to the 1970s. In those days, self-propelled equipment was still in its rudimentary stages of development. Now, modern autonomous tractors, harvesters, cultivators, weeders, and other machines feature highly advanced electronics, imaging systems, and sensors to alert remote …
The long and winding road to resolving the decades-long issue of how and when autonomous vehicles and equipment can be used in California agriculture gets a kick-start on March 26th. That’s when the Cal/OSHA Standards Board will convene an advisory committee to discuss autonomous tractors. Cal/OSHA says the meeting will be virtual to allow for …