73. Emergency Pod - Ag robot meltdown!

Is it the end of the road for Agrointelli and their Robotti autonomous gantry platform? In the spirit of “The Rest is Politics”, Kit and Ray take to the airwaves to discuss the breaking news of Agrointelli’s bankruptcy. While the company is currently still producing robots and fulfilling orders their liquidity challenges could mean the end of the line for the company founded in 2015 to commercialise academic research. With a Danish government fund keeping the lights on, can a deal be done before time runs out? The pair also discuss other autonomy plays in the agricultural space, are the likes of Agco and John Deer going to lose market share to smaller players or will massive distribution take the prize in the long run? Also this week the co-hosts break the news of the termination of the joint venture between Mahindra and Mitsubishi in Japan. With Mahindra pulling out of the Japanese market and focusing on their domestic customers, Ray and Kit ponder as to the motivations for such a move? Is Mahindra turned off by the aging population in Japan or have they pulled away with all the IP they need to further grow their domestic offering? Finally, with the rise of automation across industries, including farming, do we have enough technicians and apprentices to keep the machines working? The pair take on the debate? O and some cool AI in construction: https://youtube.com/shorts/elT6Ggcx_vQ?si=Iag54RO6c2ei2Lcu