Monarch Tractor has been accused of overpromising the autonomous capabilities of its tractors, according to a new lawsuit.
Burks Tractor, a dealership located in Idaho, has sued Monarch for breach of contract and alleged breach of its warranty because the California-based startup’s tractors “could not operate autonomously.” The dealership also says the 10 tractors it bought “continue to have significant problems” and calls them “defective.”
Monarch Tractor CEO Praveen Penmetsa and a company lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. Monarch has denied the charges in court archiving.
The previously undisclosed lawsuit, which was filed in September in Idaho state court and has since been moved to federal court, is the latest problem for Monarch.
The company has spent a few years trying to make its tractors — which are electric and supposed to be autonomous, or as Monarch calls it, “optionally driver” — to catch on in wineries and dairy farms. But it has gone through several rounds of layoffs over the past two years. The Ohio factory where its tractors were made by Foxconn is now being renovated into an artificial intelligence data center, and Monarch is trying to move into software and technology licensing.
Burks Tractor says in its complaint that it bought the 10 tractors from Monarch in early 2024 with the intention of being one of the California startup’s first dealers. During those negotiations, Burks Tractor claims Monarch “expressly represented” that the tractors would be fully autonomous and the autonomy features were “not limited by location or time.”
Monarch even provided demonstration videos to Burks Tractor that showed the equipment performing autonomous tasks, according to the complaint.
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Burks Tractor paid Monarch $773,088 for the tractors and financed the purchase, according to the lawsuit, meaning it is still paying interest. Dealer also purchased parts. Monarch delivered the first five tractors in April 2024 and the remaining five in June 2025.
The lawsuit alleges the problems started immediately.
“Upon receipt of the tractors, Burks Tractor discovered that the tractors did not perform as represented and were unable to operate autonomously,” according to the complaint. The dealer pointed this out to Monarch, and the startup’s sales team “worked with Burks Tractor to try to make autonomous tractors work autonomously,” but failed.
Burks Tractor alleges Monarch’s sales team subsequently admitted “both verbally and in writing” that the tractors’ range “was limited and the tractors could not operate autonomously indoors.” The dealer then claims they went “months without any support or follow-up to get the self-driving tractors working as promised,” despite Monarch’s “multiple attempts” to repair or replace the defective tractors.
“[T]the tractors continue to experience significant problems and do not operate autonomously,” the representative claims in the lawsuit. Burks Tractor “asked Monarch to take back the defective tractors, but Monarch refused to do so.”
