The automotive industry is undergoing the most radical transformation since people sold their horses and carriages and purchased automobiles. Almost every automaker is investing billions of dollars to develop and market all-electric vehicles.

Everyone agrees the Boeing 747 crashes were tragic and preventable. But there are some disagreements on the root cause, which is why I am writing this article. I believe the Boeing 737 Max crashes are prelude to legal arguments that will unfold over and over in a world increasingly controlled by automation.

The California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) goes into effect on January 1, 2020. The CCPA is the first comprehensive state-wide attempt to protect individual data privacy rights.

An international agricultural research group has created a set of guidelines for organizations using agricultural data in research projects. CGIAR is the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research. CGIAR and is a consortium of 15 international research centers. CGIAR has developed a Platform for Big Data in Agriculture that advocates for open data use for agricultural research.

Electric vehicles are coming. Audi’s 2019 Super Bowl ad promises that one-third of its cars will be electric by 2025. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Nissan, Porsche, Kia, and Volvo are all launching new electric cars this year. Ford announced it will even build an all-electric F150. As battery prices come down and all-electric drive becomes more mainstream, will we see farm equipment similarly embrace this technology?

In 2014, American Farm Bureau did extensive surveying of farmers to understand their attitudes towards ag data privacy and security. The results were pretty alarming. 78% of farmers said they were concerned or “extremely concerned” about which entities can access their ag data and whether that data could be used for regulatory purposes.

For the Janzen Ag Law Blog, I also spend some time looking back at the past year’s agtech developments and start to think about 2019. Here’s my list for the Ag Tech Year in Reverse: 2018.

This year blockchain moved from little-known buzzword to an early-adopter technology. If you missed it, blockchain is a distributed ledger accounting tool that promises better record-keeping and reduced transaction costs.

Many in the tech industry are reluctant to embrace privacy regulation because of the potential to stifle innovation.

One entrepreneur told me that the steel and aluminum tariffs were making it difficult, if not impossible, to commercialize his agtech invention.