'Ten years ago this was science fiction': the rise of weedkilling robots

In the corner of an Ohio field, a laser-armed robot inches through a sea of onions, zapping weeds as it goes. This field doesn't belong to a dystopian future but to Shay Myers, a third-generation farmer whose TikTok posts about farming life often go viral. He began using two robots last year to weed his 12-hectare (30-acre) crop. The robots – which are nearly three metres long, weigh 4,300kg (9,500lb), and resemble a small car – clamber slowly across a field, scanning beneath them for weeds which they then target with laser bursts. "For microseconds you watch these reddish color bursts. You see the weed, it lights up as the laser hits, and it's just gone," said Myers.