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Every time this robot does a little more, there's another minimum wage job it can replace. 24 hrs and a multi-year financing deal with service, no social secur

Every time this robot does a little more, there's another minimum wage job it can replace. 24 hrs and a multi-year financing deal with service, no social security tax, immigration concerns, theft concerns, long spans of unavailability, or sexual harassment lawsuits -- it doesn't take that much to replace some jobs. People aren't just expensive, they're complicated. It also doesn't seem to need building or equipment changes, so the robot can show up as soon as it's convenient. Imagine McDonald's specializing these for line cook positions and providing financing to franchises. Or an autonomous truck with one of these in the back to load/unload.

JCharante 4y ago
Should we be digging holes with spoons? That way we would need 1000x the laborers. Increasing literacy rates killed off the jobs for people who would read and write letters or dictate books. Just because jobs get made redundant doesn't mean it's a bad thing.
noitpmeder 4y ago
Almost every problem (including the ones you mentioned) are probably better suited by purpose-built automation, instead of a more "general-use" robot like this. Why would McDonalds pay some multiples of $100k PER robot, when they can engineer/design/mass-produce (at their scale) entire kitchens to do exacly what they need and nothing more. Similar with unloading delivery trucks. A purpose built unloader (I'm thinking of an automated forkift, ish) would almost definitely be a) cheaper (per unit of work) and b) be able to do the job a ton more efficiently than something trying to emulate "human" methodologies.
- post-it 4y ago
  A robot plumber could plumb your toilet. In fact, a robot plumber could install plumbing - and perform other tasks - during construction, under the supervision of a human. One human could supervise several robots, and the human would experience much less of a physical toll than current tradespeople.

JCharante 4y ago

Should we be digging holes with spoons? That way we would need 1000x the laborers. Increasing literacy rates killed off the jobs for people who would read and write letters or dictate books. Just because jobs get made redundant doesn't mean it's a bad thing.

noitpmeder 4y ago

Almost every problem (including the ones you mentioned) are probably better suited by purpose-built automation, instead of a more "general-use" robot like this. Why would McDonalds pay some multiples of $100k PER robot, when they can engineer/design/mass-produce (at their scale) entire kitchens to do exacly what they need and nothing more. Similar with unloading delivery trucks. A purpose built unloader (I'm thinking of an automated forkift, ish) would almost definitely be a) cheaper (per unit of work) and b) be able to do the job a ton more efficiently than something trying to emulate "human" methodologies.

post-it 4y ago
A robot plumber could plumb your toilet. In fact, a robot plumber could install plumbing - and perform other tasks - during construction, under the supervision of a human. One human could supervise several robots, and the human would experience much less of a physical toll than current tradespeople.