Monarch Tractor Company sued over tractors that were unable to operate independently

Monarch Tractor has been accused of overpromising the autonomous capabilities of its tractors, according to a new lawsuit.

Burks Tractor, an Idaho-based dealership, sued Monarch for breach of contract and breach of its warranty because the California-based startup’s tractors were “incapable of operating independently.” The agency also says the 10 tractors it purchased “continue to have significant problems,” describing them as “defective.”

Monarch Tractor CEO Praveen Penmetsa and a lawyer for the company did not respond to a request for comment. Monarch has denied the allegations in a lawsuit.

The previously unreported lawsuit, which was filed in September in Idaho state court and has since moved to federal court, is the latest problem Monarch has faced.

The company has spent a few years trying to get its tractors — electric and meant to be autonomous, or as Monarch calls them, “driver optional” — to work on wineries and dairy farms. But it has gone through multiple rounds of layoffs over the past two years. The Ohio plant where Foxconn once built its tractors is being renovated into an artificial intelligence data center, and Monarch is trying to focus on licensing software and technology.

Burks Tractor says in its complaint that it purchased the 10 tractors from Monarch in early 2024 with the intent of being one of the startup’s first dealers in California. During those negotiations, Burks Tractor claims that Monarch “expressly represented” that the tractors would be fully autonomous, and that the autonomy features “were not limited by location or time.”

Monarch even provided Burks Tractor demo videos that showed the equipment performing autonomous tasks, according to the complaint.

Burks Tractor paid Monarch $773,088 for the tractors and financed the purchase, according to the lawsuit, meaning it is still paying interest. The dealer also purchased spare parts. Monarch delivered the first five tractors in April 2024 and the remaining five in June 2025.

The lawsuit claims the problems started immediately.

“Upon receipt of the tractors, Burks Tractor Company discovered that the tractors did not perform as intended and were not capable of operating independently,” the complaint states. The dealer reported this to Monarch, and the startup’s sales team “worked with Burks Tractor to try to get the self-driving tractors to operate autonomously,” but failed.

Burks Tractor claims that the Monarch sales team then admitted “orally and in writing” that the tractors’ autonomy “was limited and that the tractors were not capable of operating independently indoors.” The agent then claimed that it had been “months without any support or follow-up to get the self-driving tractors to perform as promised,” despite “numerous attempts” to have Monarch “repair or replace the defective tractors.”

“[T]“The tractors continue to have significant problems and do not operate independently,” the dealer claims in the lawsuit. “Burks Tractor Company required Monarch to take back the defective tractors, but Monarch refused to do so.”