The devices will be made by AgJunction, a Canada-headquartered developer Kubota acquired last December.
They will become available in Japan by the end of the year.
AgJunction’s kit includes a smart antenna along with a steering wheel correction device.
The system is capable of driving a tractor on a straight line with a deviation of just a few centimeters without the human operator touching the wheel.
A skilled farmer tills fields in lines that are as straight as possible to maximise crop yield.
With farms in Japan facing a shortage of workers, automation devices can assist novices and help ease the labour crunch.
By selling the kits in Japan, Kubota seeks to expand use of automated farm equipment to 10% of the total by 2030.
The Japanese government ranks self-operating farm equipment with three levels of autonomy.
They range from Level 1, where a human needs to sit in the driver’s seat, to full Level 3 autonomy.
Kubota has been selling Level 1 autonomous tractors since 2016.
But the tractors have failed to catch on as anticipated due to the price tags: a single 28 horsepower model costs nearly ¥5 million.
The automation kits from Kubota will cost ¥1.65 million, making them affordable for most family farms.
The equipment will make the tractors Level 1 autonomous.
Although the retrofit kits will cut into sales of higher-priced tractors, Kubota sees the need to gain expertise in assessing and solving problems that arise as automation progresses.
The company will apply this know-how toward research and development in the field.
Kubota has teamed up with US semiconductor company Nvidia to develop Level 3 autonomous tractors.
The Japanese company spent ¥80 billion to establish a research and development centre in Sakai, a city near Osaka.
The plan is to market the high-end tractors in the US, home to many large-scale farm operators.
Leading US manufacturer Deere & Co is on course to release a tractor capable of Level 3 autonomy by the end of this year.
Deere and other foreign rivals mainly produce large, heavy tractors, which compact the soil and reduce yields.
Operating smaller tractors – like Kubota’s mainstay models of under 100 horsepower – side by side instead can have less negative impact on the soil.
“It’s a good way for Japanese players, which focus more on smaller tractors, to use their strengths,” said Noboru Noguchi, a professor at Hokkaido University and an expert on autonomous driving.
The global market for autonomous tractors will increase sevenfold between 2020 and 2030 to US$11.5 billion, according to Allied Market Research.
“Labour shortages are growing in the US and other markets,” said Kubota president Yuichi Kitao.
“Autonomous equipment up to a certain point will become the standard worldwide.”