The work on the autonomou vehicle was shifted to an e-gator vehicle in 2006. The shortcomings of the tractor namely the large size of the vehicle and lack of speed control, had to be overcome to make u-turns and completely navigate the orchard. An e-gator uses electronic control of all aspects of the vehicle and is a much smaller vehicle. This also aids in easier testing.
The operating system for the computer was changed to linux rather than windows used in the tractor. Windows was found to be inherently slow when large amount of processing is required particularly when using vision algorithms. At present, the egator is being converted to the same level of autonomy as the tractor. In addition, u-turn and switch back turn algorithms are being implemented.