Technology is reshaping industries and agriculture is no exception. One company at the forefront of this transformation is Bluewhite, led by founder and CEO Ben Alfi. Bluewhite specializes in turning regular tractors into autonomous vehicles, promising a future of more profitable and sustainable farming.
In this episode of Spilled Salt, host Maureen Ballatori explores how this innovative technology works and what it means for the agricultural sector.
From Fighter Jets to Farmers’ Fields
Ben Alfi’s story is as remarkable as his company. Before founding Bluewhite, Ben spent 25 years in the Israeli Air Force. There, he developed a deep understanding of unmanned systems and autonomous technology. His military experience, coupled with his love for technology, set the stage for his leap into agricultural innovation.
“In the Air Force, we valued long-term vision and trust,” Ben recalls. These values have become the bedrock of Bluewhite’s approach to revolutionizing farming.
Transforming Tractors to Autonomous Vehicles
The idea behind Bluewhite didn’t originate from a specific plan to disrupt agriculture. Instead, Ben and his team began by exploring where their expertise in autonomous vehicles could be most impactful. They assessed various industries and found that agriculture presented a perfect alignment of need, technology readiness, and economic viability.
“We looked at urban mobility, mining, and first responders,” Ben explains. “But agriculture stood out. It’s a field where our technology could solve real problems and where the need for innovation is urgent.”
At its core, Bluewhite’s mission is simple yet groundbreaking: to make any tractor, regardless of make or model, autonomous. This transformation means that a single tractor can perform tasks without a driver, such as spraying crops or mowing fields.
One of the key advantages of Bluewhite’s technology is its adaptability. The system can be installed on existing tractors, turning them into autonomous machines in just one day. This flexibility is crucial for farmers who want to upgrade their operations without investing in brand-new equipment.
Encouraging Agtech Adoption by Building Trust and Relationships
Ben emphasizes that Bluewhite’s success hinges not just on technology, but on strong relationships. The company has built close ties with dealerships and growers, ensuring that everyone involved benefits from their solutions. This partnership approach has been vital in scaling their operations.
“We focus on creating a win-win situation,” says Ben. “Our goal is to support farmers in reducing costs and improving safety while making their operations more efficient.”
Safety is a top priority for Bluewhite. Ben is committed to ensuring that their autonomous systems are reliable and secure. For example, their technology includes advanced obstacle detection to prevent accidents. This attention to detail reflects Ben’s belief that autonomous vehicles should not just enhance productivity but also make farms safer places to work.
Looking ahead, Ben envisions a future where autonomous technology will eliminate the need for humans to perform dangerous tasks like spraying chemicals or working long hours in dusty conditions. “In ten years, we’ll wonder why people ever did those jobs manually,” he predicts.
As Bluewhite continues to grow, the company is focusing on three main areas:
Enhancing Capabilities: They aim to keep improving their technology to offer more functions and better performance, helping farmers maximize their return on investment.
Strengthening Partnerships: Bluewhite plans to deepen its relationships with dealerships and explore collaborations with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to integrate their technology directly into new tractors.
Ensuring Food Security: Ultimately, Ben’s vision extends beyond technology. He hopes that Bluewhite will contribute to global food security by making farming more efficient and sustainable, ensuring that future generations have access to affordable, high-quality food.
Ben Alfi’s journey from the skies to the fields is a testament to the power of innovation and vision. Bluewhite is not just transforming tractors; it’s shaping the future of farming. By combining cutting-edge technology with a deep commitment to safety and relationships, Bluewhite is paving the way for a new era in agriculture.
For farmers and industry professionals interested in the latest in agricultural technology, Bluewhite offers a glimpse into a future where farming is more efficient, sustainable, and safe. As Ben puts it, “We’re working to make sure that our kids and grandkids can enjoy good food without it costing a fortune.”
Transcript
This transcript has been edited from its original form to support readability.
Maureen Ballatori: I’m Maureen Ballatori and this is Spilled Salt, a podcast on the thrills and spills from the food, beverage and agriculture industries.
Today’s guest is Ben Alfi. He is the founder and CEO of Bluewhite. They equip existing fleets like tractors with autonomous technology, an easy-to-use platform and end-to-end service supporting a grower’s journey to a more profitable and sustainable farm.
In short, that means that they are turning any tractor that farms any crops into an autonomous vehicle. Pretty remarkable concept, but what I love most about today’s conversation with Ben is his approach and mindset to the business as a whole.
We talk about what it has meant for him to scale and what that’s looked like for him, his go-to-market strategy, it’s chef’s kiss, and he really puts a lot of emphasis on the relationships that he’s developed in the industry as a key to their success. Enjoy the conversation.
Maureen: Thank you for joining me. I’m very excited to capture your story on today’s show.
So you spent 25 years in the Israeli Air Force. I’d love to start there. Can you talk a little bit about that experience? And I mean, take me all the way back to the beginning in terms of why you chose to go into the Air Force in the first place, as well as what the experience was like.
Ben Alfi: Well, I guess I was being young and competitive and seeing too much Top Gun. But the main idea is I think being in that life and spending so much time in the Air Force. It didn’t change my character, but for sure it changed the way I’m seeing things, addressing values always first in a way and talking about trust and seeing things long term and not short sighted.
These are things that really are rooted in that lifestyle and the way I’m feeling and creating something in a way. It’s a great balance I’d say between taking your personal achievements to the edge.
In a way, being a fighter pilot, but on the other side also dealing with the cause, dealing with the big picture. So I think this is something that is rooted deep in me.
And also part of and on the professional side the last 10 years of my service, were around unmanned systems and dealing with anything from two pounds to six ton air and ground vehicles, developing programs from ideas, from the need to seeing it actually happening and to see that being a pilot is something that is going to be obsolete quite soon.
This is also a huge way people invested in me, millions of dollars, and just to take off and land and all the mistakes usually are man error. And we created systems along the days of where you have 18-year-old boys and girls after three weeks doing crazy things from an air-conditioned room. So things are changing. And so we saw, I’ve seen change.
And these are the main things and characteristics, I guess.
Maureen: So I certainly resonate with, you mentioned, values first and it’s about trust. I definitely resonate with that.
I think that it’s something that’s really common in the agricultural industry too. That shared value alignment. That you have to have, it’s so important.
I want to talk more about your transition to, or not transition to, but your work in, how you got into working on unmanned systems work in the Air Force. Like, how did you go into that detail, I guess is the better question.
Ben: This is something that happens on your professional side. You still fly once a week to meditate, but you get a profession. And technologies always were part of my interest.
I dug into this rabbit hole and just saw things that are just amazing. And the ability to save lives and the ability to to create scale, the ability to take technology to the maximum, the ability to increase safety. All those things were really, really of interest to me. And where I come from is a place where we looked at unmanned systems strategically from four decades ago, saying, a life is precious and the technology is coming and let’s use it to the maximum.
I think taking this to and this what we call the civilian lives here and you talked about it. It’s not like Bluewhite from the beginning said, we’re going to transform agriculture, disrupt our agriculture and do that. We started with saying, okay, we know autonomous vehicles. Let’s see, where can it work?
Maureen: So take me down that path, because that was my next question in terms of where did the, I guess it’s clear where the idea for the business came from, certainly evolved from some of your work in the Air Force, but how did that, you just mentioned we sort of took this idea of where is the need? How did you determine where there was a need for autonomous vehicles in agriculture?
Ben: We searched for any type. We looked at big areas where autonomous vehicles in a way are supposed to help blue collar workers transform from pilots and drivers to robot operators. And the idea is to, first of all, we looked at the metrics.
And when we say we looked, it means that we offered our solution in all of those industries. You cannot really know until somebody is either paying or not paying for you for what you’re offering.
These were the first three years of our work from 2017 where we said, okay, we looked at urban mobility. We looked at mining, agriculture, first responders, and the military. We said, from the beginning, we don’t want to do this.
We looked at how big is the TAM, how big is the market, how mature the technology is, can it really work with the available technology now in the next five years, can it really work and the need. How desperate is the need?
Because when people are desperate, and destruction is happening, evolution is happening. This is how evolution is happening
For an example of urban mobility in a huge town, there is a need. I can have an Uber driver quite easily in the cities but we see that in the future people would like not to do that.
The need is medium, I’d say, but the technology is not there. It’s a complex environment. It’s just too much.
When we looked at agro and first responders, for example, the technology is there, the need is high, but people will not pay a lot for that technology. And the technology is still expensive. When we’re looking in agriculture, it was like all the stars are aligning amazingly, amazingly.
We have very unique technology, how to work with no GPS and no connectivity and sensor fusion. We said, okay, this is a great place for that. And rugged areas, it is hard, but it’s achievable.
Usually we took high value crops because there are a lot of tractors per acre all year long and the operation cost of labor and chemical usage and the amount of tractors is huge. And then we said, okay, and we went to growers and asked, hey, what’s going on? Do you have a need?
Maureen: Because the need is certain. Right. Absolutely. The need is certain.
Ben: And then I said, okay, next question, please. Now you take this part with the first question about values, where we came and we said we want to create an impact worldwide through autonomy, with the values of fellowship, love of the land and innovation. And those values were before we found agriculture. And so you take the values, you take the industry, you take the attitude of long-term players.
They aren’t saying, show it to me like next week. They’re saying, I’m with you. We understand it’s a big thing. We understand it’s a long-term change. Okay, so let’s work on it together.
Maureen: Which goes back to what you were mentioning about your time in the Air Force where you developed the ability to see that long-term vision, right? Where you can play the long game and it doesn’t have to be a, what do you have for me right now? Because I think that that’s a common thing in agriculture, right?
I’m building a talk for next week for the Cultivate Conference in Minnesota. And the topic is about how the brand story is so important for the actual adoption of innovation. And one of the things that is the root of all of that is your ability to grow trust, especially in agriculture, to grow trust with your consumer before they will adopt.
What are your thoughts about that in terms of, especially with all of the work that you did about where this can be applied? What is the best industry, sector or vertical for this application of autonomous vehicles. You chose agriculture. How did you build trust?
Ben: First of all transparency. I can tell you that for example at the beginning, although I knew a lot of things I didn’t know that I did not know a lot of other things.
And I think these are critical when you don’t know what you don’t know. Today we have a good idea of how the roadmap should be. Small examples. We tested our things in Israel. In Israel you have connectivity anywhere. It’s a very small country. You have reception anywhere. I’m coming to America.
California should be the land of the brave. It should be everything amazing, but we got zero reception, zero, zero. Okay. What the hell? How do I now start what and you know, we need to deliver.
So the main idea was, okay, at the beginning, hey, listen, we thought it’s like this. This is how it is. We’re working on it.
And this is how we do it. Yes, in around five months, we created a huge cooperation with Intel and created a local 5G network and we solved it.
This is a good way to show trust. You show, hey, I have it, but you’re not, but if you’re keeping it to yourself and you’re not transparent and you’re not saying, okay, what how does it work?
If you’re not transparent, this really creates misalignment and it affects everything. Once we understand that something that we thought of is not happening, just say it. Okay, the market is huge enough. The problem is huge enough. I said the challenge is huge enough, not the problem.
You look around you – growers. Okay, you have those guys and if they cannot succeed, you’re stuck. Okay. So in this transition, I’m not trying to sell. I’m trying to create a relationship.
I’m trying to create an affordable business for all of us. We are trying to create a win-win situation together.
Okay, this was your operation cost. And this operation cost is actual money that just went to waste in a way. And how can we solve it together? So maybe I have been handed too much on the answer, but this is you just pinned on a nerve of how does that this is how by examples, this is the only way to show it.
Maureen: I agree. And it’s so important. I’m so glad that you mentioned relationships and especially at your scale.
So you mentioned you launched Bluewhite in 2017. You just closed a cool 39 million in your series C. And I’m glad to hear you still emphasize the importance of relationships at that scale, because I think sometimes it’s said you can’t do one-on-one relationships and close relationships in that way when you are at that scale.
What does that look like for you today compared to what it looked like for you maybe in the early days?
Ben: We’re doing the same trick and the same trick is how do you create a relationship that also helps scalable go-to-market.
From the beginning, we were direct sales to growers, medium and big growers, where you create a direct relationship.
Now we have moved in the last year to dealerships, where dealerships are a crucial part in the ecosystem. There was a discussion: should we go on direct sales or use the dealership chain?
Again, I want to focus on what I know. Okay, so if I can create a trustable environment where the dealership wins, the grower wins, and we are winning, perfect. Let’s do it that way. And they are installing our kits on tractors. They are doing the onboarding. They are talking about us and to us, where we should focus our technological roadmap because we are creating more and more capabilities.
Should we focus on targeted spraying or should we talk about the harvester for almonds? Okay, how should it be?
Maureen: You are working with the dealerships to ask them what makes sense in terms of your next research and development. Is that what you’re saying?
Ben: Yes, I mean, this is an example, okay, and because I have a certain amount of R&D that I can create capabilities.
I know the velocity of capabilities that I can create. Always you create enough capabilities today. For example, today we take any existing tractor, transform it to autonomous and any type of tractor can work in any type of crop and do any type of mission. This is the ballpark idea.
We started with the top-tier best-selling tractors. We asked, what are the best-selling tractors that you would like us to work on?
Then we took the best-selling crops, almonds, citrus, vineyards and apples, and then we extended it a bit more.
And then, okay, what are the best-selling emissions that are needed? So first of all, do chemicals. Why do we want to take the tractor drivers away from chemicals and to create a safe environment? Okay, then mowing, then herbicide, and then we’ll extend more.
So this is an example of how you’re creating more and more scalable capabilities. And I already know what the options are two years from now, but it can transition because we cannot do just a waterfall program and without having a reaction from the farmers.
Another work we’ve done with the dealerships, which is an amazing achievement that we’ve created. We’re sending them a box from our pre-assembly line with the hardware kit from actuation, sensors, communication and everything. They take a normal tractor, regular tractor, seven o ‘clock in the morning until 3 o ‘clock in the afternoon and it’s done. It’s in a full autonomous vehicle in one day.
Maureen: That is wild, Ben. It’s wild.
Ben: So, and the idea was, it started with talking to them, okay, what do you know to do in your dealership? Okay, everybody’s a handyman, you already give services. What is the toolbox you have? I don’t want you to buy a new toolbox. Okay, so with this and IKEA guide, okay, this is how you do it. And we started with a certain amount of hours that we thought internally when we practiced it, and they did it.
They saved around 30% of the time in a week. They made it much better than us. So the idea of allocating, okay, who does what they’ve done for more than a century, takes it to the maximum. And this is fellowship in a way. Okay, so everything is entwined. So this is why I love my job.
Maureen: I can tell. I can tell by the way you talk about it that you’re passionate about it.
In preparing for this conversation, one of the reflections I had, I grew up on a dairy farm and so my dad had a Case IH older than me and still to this day, I think still has it kicking around on the farm.
I can only imagine what it would mean for him not in today’s day and age because it’s, he hasn’t been farming for a number of years. He’s been out of it, but it just makes me think about small farms and you mentioned any tractor, any crop.
How do you deal with, you’d mentioned relationships too, but like what sort of reservations are you getting more so from the small farms perhaps that you’re not getting from a large farm that is less hesitant to incorporate technology into their farming practices?
Ben: First of all, everybody wants to incorporate technology now. I can tell you this. It’s happening. So just on the last sentence, okay? Yes, I think they want it.
The only thing they want is that it won’t be on their back. This is the only thing. Give it to me. So in a way that I’m willing to put some skin in the game, but I want to see it happening.
What happened in agriculture until now? The technology was focused on yield. And when you promise yield, it’s tricky. How can you prove it? How can you prove yield? And who is paying until yield is proven? Is it you? Is it me? Who is bleeding?
Maureen: There’s so many factors outside of your control.
Ben: I took it from my parents and I’m going to give it to my daughters or my children to make sure that it’s happy for them. And I have 25 shots of yield.
So what we’re talking about here and what is nice, we’re talking about operation costs. Okay, you have people now. So it’s a binaric issue. Okay, when you have people, how is the quality? It’s degrading. The guy doesn’t know how to press a clutch.
Okay, or the quality of the work. So can we enhance the quality of the work? How is the safety on your farm? How much chemicals are you wasting? What is the downtime in a manned shift? We see four vehicles doing spring campaigns with people, four vehicles with a person operating autonomous vehicles. And we see downtime in an eight hour shift.
A very good farm is five hours of tractor running. Usually it’s three, okay? Or three and a half or four, but it’s anything around that because everybody is having a break at the same time and things like that. You know, robots don’t need to talk to each other. And so all kinds of examples that we’re talking about operation cost, which makes it easier to say, okay, I’m with you, let’s go for it.
Maureen: I think that it gives more peace of mind to, like you mentioned, everybody wants to adopt technology. I think, yes, you’re right about that.
However, they need to make sure that it’s going to deliver. Right. And I’m with you. You can’t make promises because there are too many factors outside of your control, but that’s exactly why it goes back to the factors that you mentioned, fellowship or partnership or collaboration, love of the land, innovation that when you have shared values on those components as well, right? That we’re on the same page about these things yourself and the farmer, there’s an alignment there.
So there’s an inherent trust that comes with their comfort in applying new technology that they don’t have to be as afraid because they have the “warm and fuzzies” from the shared value.
Ben: I totally agree with this and it’s what we’re talking about a lot with growers, with the dealerships, also with OEMs. Okay, you don’t need to buy a new tractor. If you buy a new tractor, it’s great. Just put an autonomous kit on it from the beginning.
And in the future, we will offer you factory installed and in the future, I’m guessing we’ll have Bluewhite inside with OEM tractors. Okay, but this is how Bluewhite will evolve.
If you buy a new tractor, just put it with that capability. If you are not planning on buying a new tractor, let’s take the tractors that you think that you will still have here for the next five years. And let’s bolt it on them.
So you start without investing a couple of hundreds of thousands of dollars per autonomous vehicle, just to drive her and there are even offers of more expensive vehicles on that part.
The other side, yes, there is a change. You are transforming. We will be with you. We’ll make it very simple for you and we’ll be there for you.
But this is not like, okay, this is how it works. How do I implement it? We know how to do it, but we need you also to be there and to say, okay, I’m willing to put in that effort. I did not put the effort of investing, I don’t know, a million dollars just for four vehicles, but I’m with you to create that change.
It’s either us or the dealership that will do the training for your people. You don’t need to get new people. Moreover, diversity-wise, you have more availability. It’s not the same truck. There are many more people in the world, men and women, who are willing to be robot operators than tractor drivers.
So all kinds of these discussions to see what you’re expecting. And I’m not doing any qualifications for a grower. It’s not the correct wording, but in a way it’s about timing. Okay, maybe it’s not the time. And there are many, many growers that feel that this is the time for them and it’s not just the early adopters. So this is the situation.
Maureen: It’s very exciting. Tell me about a high point and a low point from your time scaling Bluewhite.
Ben: I think I’ve reflected the low point where, especially at the beginning, I say, okay, it’s much more complex than I thought.
There is a huge difference between showing a tractor driving without a person in the vehicle to create a product which has a lot of redundancies and a lot of points in that area. For me, for example, it was very important to think about safety.
I’m very happy I did not get to the statistical low point of a big safety event. It’s statistical, it will happen. We’re just trying to take it as far as possible. We already have more than 60 ,000 hours of work and we’re good.
My low points are when I disappoint myself, or when I’m disappointing my team or on our side. These are usually the points, but they’re also the high points in a way, because we debrief from them. Debriefing is very important.
We are very transparent on anything that we’re doing. We’re talking about it.
And to have a grower that started with a small amount of vehicles and say, hey, I want to go and put more vehicles in my farms. And I see it happen and this is huge.
To see workers in the company who’ve created the technology and now you see it actually at the field working. To see that a small feature of obstacle detection worked because some crazy guy decided to come with this vehicle and now the vehicle was detected and it stopped at the correct time and you thought okay I’m doing it but I’m not sure it’s needed. Boom and you see it happening.
These are for me these are highs. Usually it’s about people. My highs are really simple things.
Maureen: You’ve mentioned safety a number of times throughout this conversation too. I can tell that that’s really important to you. And I think that that’s a great point.
The example that you just gave is that you put the safety measures in place and you hope for the best, right? Because like you said, statistically things are going to happen. Hopefully the statistics are very, very low.
And when you have a situation where the safety measures that you’ve put in place are working, that they came through, that you had a moment where it was, we put that in and it did its job. I can imagine that that has saved someone’s life in some cases, probably, right? That’s so important.
Ben: You’re correct, I’m just not hoping for the best on that part. You need to work on it, you need to decide that it’s important, you put a VP that is in charge of safety.
Anything that you are doing and developing first, safety first is about it. You give it priorities. We are working agile so we can do a fix. And if something is not working well, you’re not hoping that it won’t work, you just fix it.
So it’s about prioritization, you talk about it and you always address it. So this is on that side, but really on the other side, when I see people today in the farms, the only reason there isn’t a rule or legislation that we should be obliged to take people out of the tractor when they’re spraying chemicals or when they’re mowing with all that dust in their lungs.
Ten to 15 years ago I was in an aircraft flying and there were people smoking. There was a smoking place. You look at it today, it’s crazy.
I think this is what we will think about ten years from now. How people sprayed all those things with the dust and everything and they were near those tractors. Yes, it’s great to ride a tractor, to drive a tractor like once a day for an hour or two to meditate. But you don’t want to do it 14 hours day and night.
It’s just a job that a robot can do and we can just supervise it. I think everybody would love it. So this is how I look at it.
Maureen: Great outlook. So last question for you. What’s next for Bluewhite? What are you most excited about?
Ben: I think on the scaling, we’re working on those three areas, making first of all, the growers happy and creating more and more capabilities around that, that enhance the operations and the quality and the return on investment on those areas, enhancing the relationships with the dealerships.
I’m sure that Bluewhite will also work with OEMs. So all the startups, growers, dealerships, OEM, and the ecosystem will create more and more capability. And we’re at the end, the bottom line, that both of us, our kids, will just have good food that will not cost a fortune.
This is what we’re trying to do. We’re working on making sure that America and other places have food security that you can produce at home, you can produce at your country, at scale, without the wearing of basic things. This would be awesome if and when. I’m sure we will make it. So when will we make it?
This is how I’m looking at it.
Maureen: I love your outlook, Ben. This was an inspiring conversation. And so I really appreciate you taking the time to talk about your past and your mindset as well as the company as a whole. So thanks for taking the time.