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John Deere's TANGO E5 autonomous lawnmower

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Clean lines, simple design. John Deere's new E5
Clean lines, simple design. John Deere's new E5
Simple program interface
The TANGO E5 recharge station
The John Deere TANGO E5
The TANGO E5 features a robust double walled casing
You can set your own boundaries for the E5
The John Deere TANGO E5
The John Deere TANGO E5
You do nothing while the E5 works
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The options continue to expand for those of us who'd rather sit on a garden lounge than tackle the task of cutting copious tracts of lawn. Earlier this week we looked at Bosch's foray into the robo-mower market, now it's time for a closer look at John Deere's autonomous offering - the TANGO E5.

The TANGO E5 will not only mow your lawn without you having to move off your garden lounge, but it will do so at times when you’d rather be indoors. This is because the unit boasts all weather capability which allows it scythe its way through your overgrown greenery no matter how persistent the precipitation.

The unit is powered by a 36 volt, 2600 mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery and will mow an area of up to 1,800 square meters. This space has to be defined by a user/specialist dealer installed boundary wire that helps to keep the mower from heading across the road and visiting your neighbor’s petunia bed.

You can set your own boundaries for the E5

The E5 is able to stay away from sensitive areas within its mowing boundary by letting you program in garden beds or other features that you’d rather be left untouched.

The mower is also designed to be truly a "set and forget" device, as it will sense that its battery is running low and return to a charging station to rejuvenate. Once the E5 has fully recharged (which takes around 90 minutes) it will automatically return to the task at hand and resume your mowing schedule.

The E5 can also be pre-programmed to mow on a regular basis, whether you are around or not.

Like other robotic mowers we've seen over the years, the E5 doesn’t have any means of catching or disposing of your grass. it is a mulch style mower designed to cut the grass and distribute the clippings evenly around your lawn, which means you cannot use it to mow particularly long lawn. There is an option to vary the cutting height though - you can opt to have it mow lawn at heights between 19 and 102mm.

The E5 also has a a bump sensor as a safety feature that helps it avoid obstacles and if the mower is tilted off the ground the unit will shut down, as is also the case if you touch the handle with your hand. This should ensure that it doesn’t run amok and zoom off on its own when it shouldn’t.

There's also a pin code and lock feature designed to stop the machine being stolen and used elsewhere.

The TANGO E5 is currently listed as available in Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland. It sells for just over £2000.

Source: John Deere via Gear Patrol

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6 comments
Charles Gage
It looks a great deal like our Lawnbott, both in size and design as well as in the chart depicting how the mower works. Perhaps, it is rebranded from Lawnbott's Italian builder, Ambrogio Robot?
We are into our 5th year of using the Lawnbott and it has worked great. We actually use the lawn now as it looks like a putting green and with the constant mulching, there are no grass clippings to collect on one's shoes. Extremely quite. Completely automatic. We put it out on the lawn in the Spring and retrieve it in the Fall. That's it. Well worth the investment. We also purchase no gas, no oil, and it does not require us to set aside time to mow the lawn.
Gerard Wenham
Basically, a programmable, electro-mechanical GOAT? LOL
But can you milk it? or eat it? Wouldn't goats be cheaper?
Slowburn
re; Gerard Wenham
It is not a code violation nor does it leave stinking piles of pestilence polluting your yard.
Rt1583
@ Charles - Of course it's rebranded from another manufacturer. It's more profitable for JD to rebrand it and slather it with green and yellow and charge the markup for being a "John Deere". They've been doing this for years in the states. Although I do have to give them credit for at least using more robust materials on some aspects of their various rebranded items.
Dirk Faegre
Trouble is here comes another way for we lazy humans to let the plaque build up in our arteries and get fat while we sit and do nothing. Isn't that just peachy?! Pretty soon we won't need to be born --- everything can be done without us even being here. God help save us from ourselves ... please.
Charles H. Tankersley
It is not the fact that it is there, but rather, the cost, the rechargeable, the battery (the Lithium Ion is worth +/- 500 cycles, the LiFePO4 is worth +/- 2000 cycles and is far, far, far more save due to fare hazards). Also, most of us do not mind having to push our mowers even though self propelled work, too. The key is that a few of us (about 47%) use lawn mower for our weekly workout. Now, if this mower can sit in the sun and recharge, then we get our workouts without having to pay $200 to $400 a month for lawn care and $200 to $400 a month for a Gym workout. But I do understand that some use the Gym to meet their mistresses so that their wifes are left in the dark.