I couldn’t have said it better myself. All attempts so far at automating apple picking for the grocery market have failed. Probably the biggest recent advancement is having pickers stand on tiered platforms that get slowly pulled along by a small tractor. The hottest new tech is using a vacuum system and a rotary airlock valve to eliminate workers’ time spent dumping bags into bins. It’s still all about having people grab the fruit off the tree in even the very highest of high tech operations.