From Farm Kid to Field Tested Innovator
At Sabanto, innovation doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens in machine sheds, test plots, customer fields, and long days spent solving real problems alongside farmers. That’s exactly where you’ll find Cory Davis, Vehicle Applications Product Manager, bringing a practical mindset, hands-on experience and relentless curiosity to the future of autonomous agriculture.
Raised on a small family farm near the intersection of South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa, Cory’s roots in agriculture run deep. Growing up, farming wasn’t just a way of life, it was an early education in hard work, adaptability, and mechanical problem-solving. Days spent planting sweet corn, tomatoes, and vegetables quickly turned into nights rebuilding tractors and fabricating replacement parts just to keep equipment running.
That hands-on mentality became the foundation for everything that followed.
“If something broke, you either learned how to fix it or found a way to make it work,” said Cory.
That mindset eventually led him to study Industrial Technology at Iowa State University before joining Sabanto in search of more meaningful, hands-on work.
At first glance, the role seemed like it might lean too heavily toward desk work. But after meeting the team, Cory quickly realized this wasn’t a traditional engineering environment.
“What stood out immediately was the people,” Cory shared. “You could tell this team genuinely supports each other. It felt like a real community, not just something written on a company website.”
That combination of collaboration, innovation, and field-focused problem-solving made the decision easy.
Today, as Vehicle Applications Product Manager, Cory operates at the intersection of hardware, software, testing, and customer experience. It’s a role that requires equal parts technical knowledge and adaptability.
On any given day, that might mean defining implement behavior requirements, collaborating with engineers on software functionality, troubleshooting issues in the field, or working directly with customers to better understand how autonomous systems perform in real-world conditions.
And according to Cory, that last part matters most.
“Customers don’t always tell the full story remotely,” he explained. “You have to see how they’re actually using the system and what challenges they’re facing.”
That boots-on-the-ground philosophy has helped shape several of Sabanto’s key innovations.
One of Cory’s major contributions came through the development of Sabanto’s AV&L (Audio-Visual and Lights) kit, one of the company’s most impactful recent safety innovations.
The concept originated from a real operational concern: machines potentially resuming operation while someone was still nearby.
Rather than simply adding another safety feature, the AV&L kit was designed to improve both awareness and productivity. The system enables extended auto-resume times, supports auto-play functionality for queued missions, and introduces enhanced lighting systems that pave the way for future computer vision capabilities, including nighttime obstacle detection.
For Cory, it’s a perfect example of how the best innovations solve immediate customer challenges while also creating opportunities for future advancement.
Because at the end of the day, that connection to real-world farming is what drives everything forward.