Ben Alfi is the Founder and CEO of Bluewhite, an autonomous technology company. He established the business in 2017 after more than 25 years of experience in the Israeli Air Force as a combat pilot and Head of Unmanned Systems R&D Programs.
Bluewhite focuses on improving farm resilience by providing technology that maximizes productivity and reduces operational costs. The company equips existing fleets with autonomous technology, offering a user-friendly platform and comprehensive service to help farms become more profitable and sustainable. Alfi has extensive expertise in deploying large-scale autonomous systems and has founded several successful startups. He is also actively involved in supporting Israel’s startup ecosystem, promoting values such as fellowship, innovation, and connection to the land.
After 25 years in the Israeli Air Force, you transitioned to agriculture by founding Bluewhite in 2017. Can you share more about the journey and inspiration behind starting Bluewhite, and why you chose to focus on autonomous technology for existing tractors instead of building new ones from scratch?
After two decades in the Air Force, I was inspired to apply my experience in advanced robotic systems to agriculture. In my work I saw how military-grade technology was quickly becoming mass-market-ready and understood the benefits of next-gen robotics and AI processing to disrupt industries. My co-founders and I looked for where we could have the largest impact and quickly settled on agriculture, a traditionalist industry which was ripe for innovation. We co-founded Bluewhite in 2017 to tackle the pressing challenges of labor shortages, rising operational costs, and environmental concerns that pose a crushing risk to global food production. As part of our company’s ethos, we chose to retrofit existing tractors with our autonomous technology rather than building new ones, to enable growers to immediately benefit from increased ROI without the cost and downtime of overhauling their equipment stack. This approach ensures farmers can maximize their current investments while rapidly adopting advanced technology to improve efficiency and productivity.
How does Bluewhite’s autonomous technology improve on-farm efficiency and reduce input costs for growers?
Bluewhite’s technology combines hardware and software into a seamless solution that allows for complete remote fleet management. Pathfinder, our hardware offering, which can be retrofitted onto any tractor, uses computer vision, AI, and smart implement integration to perform tasks like seeding, spraying, mowing and more autonomously. This allows growers to direct their limited work force toward higher-value tasks like farm management or skilled labor, and benefit from boosted productivity. This leads to significant reductions in labor costs, and chemical usage, ultimately decreasing overall production costs by up to 85% while increasing efficiency through data-driven operation planning. By maximizing inputs and minimizing both material waste and down time, autonomous agriculture is the critical solution for increasing yields and profits to ensure global food supply.
According to a recent McKinsey report, AI can add significant economic value in agriculture. Can you share specific examples of how Bluewhite’s technology contributes to this economic value both on and off the farm?
Bluewhite’s technology focuses on on-farm efficiency by automating labor-intensive tasks, which leads to significant cost reductions (reduced labor costs by 40-50%). For instance, our autonomous systems can limit inputs with precision materials application, automate streamlined tasks, and work round-the-clock, reducing the need for manual labor, improving safety and application quality in the farm and optimizing the use of inputs like chemicals. Savings from increased efficiency enable lower prices on produce and food for shoppers and increased profitability for distributors and retailers, contributing to a more resilient and sustainable agricultural sector, capable of weathering supply chain shocks to meet demand amidst resource scarcity and inflation.
How does the use of Bluewhite’s autonomous systems contribute to environmental sustainability, particularly in terms of reducing chemical usage and improving soil health?
Our autonomous systems minimize the overall quantity of toxic chemicals used. Precise and accurate chemical application enables the protection of local ecology and health from undue harm caused by toxic run-off or wind drift. By reducing unnecessary miles driven and optimizing resource allocation, Bluewhite is helping lower the overall carbon footprint of agricultural operations.
What measures has Bluewhite implemented to ensure the safety of autonomous tractor operations, and how do you train farm workers to use this technology effectively?
Safety is paramount in our ethos and operations. Bluewhite prioritizes safety in its autonomous tractor operations through a multi-layered approach. The system includes continuous self-diagnostics that monitor critical components like sensors, steering, and brakes, so that any issues trigger immediate corrective actions to ensure growers’ equipment stays operational. Bluewhite offers a safety layer of field intelligence that integrates sensor fusion with LiDAR and computer vision so that tractors can navigate safely, detect anomalies, and avoid obstacles, while maintaining a safe distance from people and objects. Built-in reduction procedures and physical safety features, such as front bumpers and emergency shutdown buttons provide additional safeguards. Additionally, geofencing and location-based controls prevent tractors from breaching predefined boundaries to further prevent risk to people, crops and equipment. Lastly, while tractor operations are conducted autonomously, human operators receive real-time status updates and can intervene when necessary. Bluewhite’s comprehensive training programs, including hands-on sessions and ongoing support, ensure farm workers can efficiently transition to and manage these advanced systems, all facilitated by user-friendly platforms that do not require advanced technical skills.
How scalable is Bluewhite’s autonomous technology? Can it be adapted to different types of crops and farming conditions?
Bluewhite’s technology is highly scalable and adaptable to various crop types and farming conditions. In addition to recently signing a major manufacturing partnership with CNH Industrial, Bluewhite’s retrofitting approach remains brand-agnostic, allowing us to work with a wide array of tractors and implements. Bluewhite already works with over 20 leading permanent crop growers and has executed over 50,000 operational hours of autonomous farming across 150,000 acres of farmland in the US alone. We have successfully implemented our solutions across a range of permanent crops, including nuts, berries, apples, and grapes, as this sector faces some of the most acute labor shortages. Our technology can handle diverse farming environments, ensuring continuous operation and optimal performance even in GPS-denied or challenging conditions. Thus, Bluewhite is enabling growers to ‘grow forward’ and scale their operations sustainably.
How does Bluewhite’s Compass platform help farmers make data-driven decisions, and what kind of insights can they gain from using it?
The Compass platform collects and analyzes data from the field using advanced AI algorithms, providing farmers with real-time dashboards and insights into both the quality of their application as well as the maintenance needs and efficiency indicators of their equipment. This allows them to monitor farm operations remotely and make data-driven decisions that optimize resource allocation, improve efficiency, and increase productivity through optimized path planning and overall operations. Other types of insights gained include crop health, soil conditions, and ideal timing for various farming activities, helping farmers enhance overall farm management and profitability. The farmer’s almanac of the future is here, and it is more accurate than ever before thanks to tools like autonomous technology, AI, and machine learning.
What kind of support do you provide to farmers during and after the onboarding process to ensure the success of their autonomous farming operations?
Bluewhite offers comprehensive support during and after the onboarding process. This includes initial training sessions, hands-on assistance, and technical remote and in-field support to ensure smooth implementation and operation of our autonomous systems. We also provide regular updates and access to our customer service team to address any issues and help farmers maximize the benefits of our technology. Our goal is to enable growers to adopt autonomous technology quickly and we offer our full support to help them realize its benefits.
What future innovations and developments can we expect from Bluewhite in the field of AI-driven agriculture?
Looking ahead, Bluewhite is committed to expanding our autonomous solutions and scaling globally as we continuously enhance our technology to address new challenges and opportunities that would benefit from our services.. Recent technological successes and demonstrated achievements in computer vision and navigation, targeted application systems, and interoperability across advanced farm management systems are spurring wider adoption of autonomous agricultural technology, and helping to drive the sector towards a more efficient, and sustainable future. AI and machine learning stand at this new frontier, transforming nearly all fields, including agriculture, into a tech-centric industry equipped to meet modern challenges. Future developments for Bluewhite will include further optimization of AI and machine learning to improve operational efficiency and sustainability, as well as exploring new applications for our autonomous systems in different agricultural sectors beyond permanent crops.
With the integration of autonomous systems, how do you see the role of human labor evolving in the agriculture industry?
The integration of autonomous systems in agriculture can shift the role of human labor towards more skilled, tech-oriented, and managerial positions. Farm workers are being upskilled to manage and operate advanced technologies in a safer work environment. This evolution will also allow growers to take a more bird’s eye view of farm management and not waste time on filling labor and efficiency gaps. The labor shift also promises to create new job opportunities in tech management and maintenance, ensuring a sustainable future for the agriculture industry – which is currently suffering under the weight of acute labor shortages.
Thank you for the great interview, readers who wish to learn more should visit Bluewhite.
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