Strawberries give Tom Scott's robot tour a delicate problem
His visit to Wilkin & Sons in Tiptree brings agriculture, automation and a scone debate into the same episode.
Tom Scott
Story of Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.
Why robots still can't pick strawberries
Tom Scott went to Wilkin & Sons in Tiptree to meet the machines working on a fruit farm, and found that some agricultural jobs suit robots better than others. His only new upload, "Why robots still can't pick strawberries", has reached about 1.5 million views, accounting for roughly half the channel's viewing over the week. The episode includes a sponsored segment.
The title poses an engineering question, but viewers have made room for smaller details: Scott greeting a ladybird, a JAM license plate and the amount of jam on his scone. Others single out his willingness to leave corrections to his assumptions in the edit. The ferret jokes are back too, with commenters proposing an altogether furrier alternative to automation.
The farm visit is comfortably the channel's busiest video right now. Behind it, the England series offers two rather different mechanical spectacles: Tim Hunkin's eccentric Under the Pier Show in "In this arcade, you drop metal balls on rich people.", and the Hippodrome Circus's Water Spectacular in "When I blow this whistle, a swimming pool appears." From arcade contraptions to agricultural robots, the machinery has very different job descriptions.
Scott added around 10,000 subscribers over seven days. Daily viewing is currently nearly twice its usual level, while MIT OpenCourseWare is also having a busier-than-usual day and 3Blue1Brown is quieter. Among the nearby education channels, Scott had the largest weekly views gain, with the strawberry visit supplying a substantial new addition to his England travels.
Published on Trari
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What viewers say
Thank you so much for coming to visit our farm Tom.
I don't think you used enough Jam on that scone though.@TiptreeOfficialSee it on YouTube1:53 This guy really got a license plate that says JAM
@LotsOfSSee it on YouTubeWhy are AI systems terrible at harvesting berries?
Every time they see a blackberry, they try to plug a charger into it@oldjake4233See it on YouTube
5 more comments
I do appreciate when you keep in the shots of you making an assumption or trying to give an intelligent commentary only to be told you were wrong. There's something important about showing humility in that way and normalizing being corrected so that you can learn more.
@rhichi11See it on YouTube"Agricultural mechatronics technician" is the kind of job you have just for the title
@blazernitrox6329See it on YouTube"They jumped at the chance to show off their strawberries and their robots" just doesn't sound like a real sentence.
@han5234See it on YouTubeNeed a running count of how many times Tom has said hello to things.
@PaulHickfordSee it on YouTubeHave they tried using ferrets? I have it on good authority they can do some tasks better than robots.
@b·l·ueSee it on YouTube
Public comments from the video's page on YouTube
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The videos drawing views on Tom Scott right now
- Channel
- Tom Scott
- Subscribers
- 6,750,000 ▲ 10,000 this week
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 2,995,877
- Videos published this week
- 1
- Video published
- October 12, 2026
- Video views so far
- 1,492,880
- Views on its first day
- 823,241
The numbers
Here is how Tom Scott's week adds up.
💡 Test your knowledge
Whose collection of unusual arcade machines features in Tom Scott's England series?
Scott visits Tim Hunkin's Under the Pier Show in his arcade episode.