Just above and to the right of farmer Thad Becker’s steering wheel in his John Deere combine is a screen about the size of an iPad.

“I've got readouts on yield, current yield and current moisture of the crop … how many acres I've done, how many total bushels I've harvested in the field,” Becker said. “And I've got a lot of other options too.”

Becker is harvesting this year’s soybean crop in a farm field near Mexico, Missouri. After turning the massive machine around at the end of each row, he selects an option from the screen beside him and the combine takes over, steering itself.

As the vehicle makes its way across the field collecting soybeans, the numbers on Becker’s screen inside the cab update every few seconds, measuring the amount harvested in each area, along with calculations o

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