How many distinct 'experiments' (as it were) have we actually seen with respect to automation? I often wonder whether we are drawing from a very small sample he

How many distinct 'experiments' (as it were) have we actually seen with respect to automation? I often wonder whether we are drawing from a very small sample here, where we look at a handful of distinct automation cases and conclude that we're all pretty safe. Is our experience with automation that old or varied? Have we ever faced the prospect of a range of "considerably less routine" manual labor (e.g. driving) being automated at the same time as a large number of white/pink collar tasks? The industrial revolution isn't that old in some senses.