Tasha Tuesday

So, this showed up in the vineyard out back yesterday. It's called VitiBot and it's a driverless vineyard tractor. It spent the whole afternoon plying the vine rows, but not doing anything. I imagine that there are various attachments for whatever jobs it might do, like mowing, plowing, or trimming. I wonder if it can do spraying or harvesting? But for now it looks like trial runs. Oh, here, I don't have to imagine: check it out. The magic of the internet.

Tasha has a close encounter of the third kind.

I don't know how it works. My guess is GPS, but I don't know. At first there were people out walking behind it, but after a while they left it alone while it crawled along, turning around at the end of each row and moving over to the next. One guy stayed in the vineyard, driving a tractor the old fashioned way, spraying the vines to prevent mold. I think he was also keeping an eye on the blue beast. Tasha was curious (something new!) and ran right up to it, barking. The "bot" ignored her. Thankfully, she turned around and came back to me when I called her. I hope that the machine would sense obstacles (animals or people) in its path and stop moving. We shall see.