@sfchronicle: After the sun sets on Wilson Vineyard in Sonoma, the 51-acre farm’s newest piece of equipment blinks to life. The self-driving Thorvald robot trundles through the dirt like a covered wagon, its canopy arching over the row of grape vines. As it rolls down each row, it blasts the vines with concentrated ultraviolet light to kill powdery mildew, a white fungus that can scar and shrivel grapes and make wine taste bitter or musty. The Napa-based Walsh Vineyard Management, which farms about 4,500 acres of vines for dozens of clients, began testing Thorvald robots this spring. The experiment hasn’t been entirely painless: In May, one of the machines kept its UV lights on after it got stuck in a gopher hole and “fried three vines to a crisp,” company president Russell Weis said. But Weis is confident that this won’t happen with the robot’s upgraded model, which has thicker wheels, stronger propulsion and a suspension system. Read more via the link in our bio.

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Wednesday 16 September 2026 22:25:50 GMT