On November 18, 2025, TechCrunch published news of a lawsuit filed by Idaho-based dealership Burks Tractor against Monarch Tractor for breach of contract and violating warranty after the California-based startup’s Monarch’s tractors failed to operate autonomously.  

The dealership claims the 10 tractors it purchased via interest-bearing financing for nearly $800,000 are defective and did not live up the driver-optional, or autonomous, claims of the company.

Burks Tractor’s claims it purchased the 10 tractors from Monarch starting in early 2024 with the intent of being among the California-based startup’s first retail dealers. Burks claims Monarch misrepresented the tractors as “fully autonomous and not limited by location or time.”

The article states that Monarch attempted to make the units work autonomously but failed and eventually admitted the limitations but refused to take back the defective inventory. 

According to TechCrunch, the suit is now in federal court. 

Ag Equipment Intelligence reviewed a November 19 letter from the Monarch Tractor’s HR department to 102 employees that warned of pending layoffs while communicating that the firm was moving to a new business plan of direct licensing for software and development to OEM customers. 

An industry insider told Ag Equipment Intelligence that the troubles of the lawsuit and staff layoffs were not a result of the economic downturn but rather due to an avoidance of making necessary changes to strategy. The Monarch story, we were told, is another example of where the agtech industry’s founders and engineers are so far removed from the real-world of ag production that they can’t comprehend the changes that are needed to make their inventions work.

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