Inside John Deere Harvester Works: Think your iPhone is cutting-edge? Try driving an X9 combine.

About 18,000 parts go into a John Deere combine, like this one being assembled at the company’s Harvester Works in East Moline, Illinois. That’s three times as many parts as you’ll find in a typical car. (Neil Steinberg / Sun-Times)

Don’t be fooled by the miles of grain blurring into one endless field as you blast by on Interstate 88.

Those stalks might all look the same to you. But farm equipment today can perceive each individual plant and know which one’s a crop, which is a weed.