An electric walk behind greens mower having a traction drum split into a first half and a second half, each half rotatable at a different speed to provide traction drive and steering for the mower in response to actuation of hand controls by an operator, or in response to commands from an electronic controller based on the signals from a proximity sensor on the mower. The electric walk behind greens mower includes a pair of electric traction drive motors, one of the electric traction drive motors rotating each half of the split traction drum.