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If the costs of labor go up fast, they have much more incentive to automate. When right now they may think it's cheaper to hire humans.
by bufferoverflow 4y ago
If the costs of labor go up fast, they have much more incentive to automate. When right now they may think it's cheaper to hire humans.
- kolinko 4y agoThis would only be true if there was a technology to automate and it was just too expensive. For jobs that Amazon hires people there isn’t a technology to automate right now. Such technology is being developed (better AI and better robotics), but increasing the budget wouldn’t necessarily speed things up.
- bufferoverflow 4y agoYou're confusing the absence of the off-the-shelf product with the absence of the technology.
- kolinko 4y agoI'm not. Did you ever work on AI or robotics?
- yazaddaruvala 4y agoAmazon’s Kiva robots, also https://youtu.be/d7J2_vr0ra4 https://youtu.be/d7J2_vr0ra4, are not installed in every FC. They are not willing to pay to upgrade all the old FCs, new international FCs, etc. i.e. “it’s too expensive”. This is also clear in how Amazon waited till the pandemic to add self checkout counters to many Whole Foods. They spent “$4 BB on safety measures for employees” and called self checkout a safety measure to reduce employee to employee density and employee to customer contact. Again it was previously “too expensive to do in mass” even if only for the terrible press it would have brought out side the pandemic. Not saying “they will never get to it.” They will. Or that it’s not worth it. But the other commenter is also right that unions and hire wages could drive a larger investment in automation earlier than it would have otherwise.