| Or we replace our cashiers with an automated money-taking and distribution system ? That's an ATM. We did it already for 90%+ of cash-handling interactions.

| Or we replace our cashiers with an automated money-taking and distribution system ? That's an ATM. We did it already for 90%+ of cash-handling interactions. | But I still feel we are far behind Far behind what? It's hard to find things that robots are good for when you factor in the cost. When you optimize for price/performance, you get for example your dishwasher. It's a robot that does 90% of your dishwashing, for cheap. The other 10% is the tricky stuff and you can't afford the robot that can do it. Even if we had the software for cheap, machines that can do accurate manipulation with a strong grip are expensive to make, requiring high-quality motors with strong magnets, for example. The current killer app for robots is manufacturing. They already do a lot of it, and have done for 20 years. You just don't see them. The next huge killer app for robots is the self-driving car. This will come eventually, and it'll save tens of thousands of lives every year. It'll come gradually, and at first it will drive you 95% of the time while you handle the tricky bits. This is how Google does it and they have driven tens (maybe hundreds now) of thousands of miles around California. Otherwise, you'll soon see flying robots doing geophysical surveys, checking power lines, etc. This is current done by people in helicopters and is expensive. UAVs are getting very cheap and we can control them well. There are opportunities too in labour-intensive business like order fulfilment. Amazon uses lots of people and could replace some of them with robots like Kiva Systems. Amazon is interesting since they will probably do it cheaply and cleverly, now that Kiva has invested and shown that it can be done. In summary: the robots you see every day are ATMs, dishwashers, etc. The more robot-like robots are hidden away working for you. Down the road you'll see automated cars. You won't think of them as robots either.