According to several reports, Monarch Tractor vacated its Livermore, Calif., headquarters abruptly on April 3. This comes after the company laid off its workforce in late 2025, as we reported in our Nov. 27 episode. 

A report from SFGATE about the company’s apparent failure includes details and a harsh review from California winemaker Patrick O’Connor, who says he’s been testing the tractor for 3 years on his vineyard. 

In an interview with SFGATE, O’Connor said he couldn’t find any serious uses for the Monarch tractor. He also said it was dangerous when in self-driving mode. 

He went on to say, “It was theoretically promising advancement in mechanical weed control over chemical weed control. But the hydraulics were finicky, the automated row follow didn’t pan out. It was hitting my vines. And it was never to a point where you could be driverless.”

In a LinedIn post, Jon Rossi, founder of Digital Iron, said “The winners in equipment tech won’t be the ones with the best AI. They’ll be the ones who solve service, uptime and integration into dealer ecosystems. Monarch tried to leapfrog the system.”

We’ll continue to watch what is happening with Monarch Tractor, along with the lawsuit filed against the OEM by Burks Tractor last year. 

Watch the full version of this episode of On The Record