Turns out farmers really like their WiFi because driving around in a tractor all day is really boring without some entertainment.

That's the truth. Give a tractor wifi and you will soon see a farmer riding with Netflix.

That is not an assumption or a guess. I've deployed Wi-Fi to farms and the first thing they reach for is an iPad and Netflix.

For many years now my grandfather has read ebooks from the cab of his tractor. He puts his sony ereader in a ziplock bag to protect it from the dust and reads a few pages each row.

Despite his age he was a really early ebook adopter since they live in such a rural spot. The library can transfer books from bigger cities, but the shipping time is so slow and there is a limit to the number of books you can check out at once. Basically the netflix disc problem before they switched to streaming. Taking out ebooks from the library is really easy and a great way to pass the dull time spent on the tractor.

I recently got to set up a hunter’s tree stand in the middle of the woods with a directional waveguide WiFi “cantenna” link to their house... because Netflix.

I've watched a German tractor driver on Twitch livestreaming before. It was surreal.

There's a whole genre of youtube channels of farmers explaining what they do and how their tractors work. As a city dweller I find them pretty interesting.

Any favorite examples to link? Sounds interesting.

I enjoy "MN Millennial Farmer": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp0rRUsMDlJ1meYAQ6_37Dw

I saw an article today about how farmers are streaming Netflix while running their JD tractors. PR piece for sure. Bread and Circus. Smoke and mirrors.

I know there isn't exactly much to hit around there but I am still surprised that sort of distracted operation is safe - beyond say Pandora or podcasts.

Tractors usually move at a deliberately very slow speed, so piloting a vehicle moving 3mph over terrain utterly devoid of obstacles, and which often has some kind of automatic driving assist, is really not that hard.

Some of the more sophisticated tractors are like being in a plane on auto-pilot. Some you can even pilot remotely if you're really not in the mood to drive it, like a gigantic Roomba.

I don't think any can be officially piloted remotely, but clever farmers have done this.

Legal fears scare tractor manufacturers from making something truly autonomous; there's supposed to be a human in the driver's seat at all times. That said, John Deere has had self-driving tractors for almost 20 years, now. And I mean they automatically steer themselves, they don't just go straight for a predetermined amount of time (though they can do that, too.)