5 ms·
why america sucks when it comes to robots?
by karlzt 16y ago
why america sucks when it comes to robots?
- sliverstorm 16y agoRobots are used for manufacturing. The US hasn't been doing a whole lot of manufacturing recently, so it has less use for robots.
- lallysingh 16y agoThe graph is per-10k manufacturing workers. I'd say it's due to strong unions in the US.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- HeyLaughingBoy 16y agoThe US is probably doing more manufacturing now than at any time ever (don't have a cite, but it's easy to find figures online). It's just not visible because we don't manufacture much in the way of consumer products. But there are many, many companies building and selling stuff. I'd say that most of the businesses in the industrial park where I work are small and medium manufacturers. I happen to work for a very large manufacturer, but you'd never know it to look at our building: looks like any other office building except for the semis at the loading dock.
- miked 16y agoThe US is still the world's largest manufacturer, by a hair: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_country_has_the_largest_manufacturing_industry_in_the_world http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_country_has_the_largest_manuf...
- HeyLaughingBoy 16y agoRobots are expensive to acquire and to run. Unless you're in the kind of manufacturing where robots are useful (either very heavy industry or very large volume), there's probably no net benefit. OTOH, used robots are cheap. e.g, http://bit.ly/b5Fsgu http://bit.ly/b5Fsgu but if you don't have the required knowledge to repair, service and program them, then the upkeep will kill you.
- hugh3 16y agoRobots are only useful in certain industries, and these industries don't dominate US manufacturing the way they do in the robot-heavy countries. For instance, cars are built largely by robots, but aeroplanes largely aren't. Japan builds a lot of cars and no(?) aeroplanes, while the US builds a lot of cars and a lot of aeroplanes.