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This is anecdotal but I haven’t seen guys hanging off garbage trucks in a long time. Around here it’s just one guy with a hydraulic arm on the truck that picks
by xwdv 6y ago
This is anecdotal but I haven’t seen guys hanging off garbage trucks in a long time. Around here it’s just one guy with a hydraulic arm on the truck that picks up the cans and dumps out garbage, and he does it very very efficiently. Pretty soon it should be possible to even replace the driver with a self driving truck that goes around pre determined paths in the neighborhood.
- aintnoprophet 6y agoThat may be true in populated areas. But, what about areas that lag behind? Rural america that is too poor to afford robot trucks. I see people hanging off garbage trucks all the time in the midwestern low pop and rural areas.
- kerkeslager 6y ago> But, what about areas that lag behind? Rural america that is too poor to afford robot trucks. The robot trucks are cheaper than the humans that operate the non-robot trucks, so your argument doesn't make much sense here.
- z0r 6y agoNeed some evidence for that.
- kerkeslager 6y ago[1] https://www.commercialtrucktrader.com/Garbage/trucks-for-sale?category=Garbage%20Truck%7C2000623 https://www.commercialtrucktrader.com/Garbage/trucks-for-sal... [2] https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/garbage-collector/salary https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/garbage-collector... Keep in mind a truck lasts for years, while a truck driver has to be paid yearly. I'm not figuring in maintenance costs for the truck here--if you'd like to argue that yearly maintenance costs for the truck are the same as the cost of the truck, I can look that up too, but I'm hoping you are a reasonable person.
- nogabebop23 6y ago>> The robot trucks are cheaper than the humans that operate the non-robot trucks not if you understand accounting. I can hire a guy today at <$20/hr operating cost to do it manually. That robot truck is a much more significant capital investment that will amortize over 10+ years.
- kerkeslager 6y ago1. Loans: it seems you've forgotten these exist. 2. Private garbage collection companies: just because a municipality doesn't have money to buy a robot truck in cash, doesn't mean the private garbage collection company that serves most of the surrounding municipalities doesn't. 3. If you actually look up the prices, the numbers are so skewed in the favor of automation that even without loans or private companies, I very much doubt there are any cases where this would take 10+ years to amortize. Your $20/hour collector translates to $30K/year if they works 30 hours/week, or $300K in 10 years. Is it your claim that robot trucks cost $300K more than non-robot trucks?
- xwdv 6y agoRobot trucks are perfect for those areas; cheaper, faster, better.
- nogabebop23 6y agoYou're welcome to personally finance south pedoka county's multi-million dollar purchase of robo-garbage trucks. oh, and figure out how that garbage collector can now support themselves. I realize this runs against the reality of HN, but not all solutions are technology, and not all technology solutions are as simple as "just do X". It's like the "dropbox is just ..." meme turned up to 11
- luckylion 6y agoIt's the same here, but not where I lived a few years ago. It's just not practical in the densely populated inner city. Garbage containers can't be lined up at the street, are stored in back yards etc, and you still need people to pull them to the street and push them back. Where I live now, that job now is done by the home owners or by staff of the apartment buildings. The job didn't go away, it's just no longer done by the garbage collectors.
- karatestomp 6y agoMoved to a poor, small (~250k) "metro" area midwestern city around 2008. Robot arm garbage trucks! Moved back to a much richer one 10x larger a couple years later. No robot arm garbage trucks then, and still none now. Bags on the end of the driveway, guys hanging on trucks.
- badwolf 6y agoVolvo's been working on building self-driving garbage trucks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJSHXr8i-ZU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJSHXr8i-ZU
- zelly 6y ago"pretty soon" is when? garbage trucks are giant, quarter million dollar machines with giant forks on them that could demolish thousands of homes in an accident before someone shoots its tires. this seems like one of those things that will still be done manually for years after level 5. imagine a self-operated crane constructing a skyscraper. it's not that it's inherently more difficult than self-driving--the stakes are too high and one disaster could undo decades of savings from not hiring people.
- thysultan 6y agoIf you wanted to do away with garbage trucks you'd build a tunnel system for trash bins that discharge their contents when prompted.