I expect workers like this. Warehouse picking is grueling work and no one really likes it per se. So having a robot do it is good to allow humans to do other things.<p>I don’t think the solution is to keep grueling jobs or pay more to make people do things they don’t want to do. Of course more money is good, but at the end of the day, it’s a repetitive job that doesn’t require much thought.<p>What’s interesting is that if these only cost $3/hour to operate that’s only $25k/year (assuming 365x24 operation) so if these things last 5 years then that means the idea is they will only cost $125k to buy and maintain. That’s cheap enough that middle class people will have live in super servants. And that’s much more appealing to me to have a laundry/dish/sweep bot. Especially since I could probably chip in with neighbors and eventually not have to do these household chores.
Highly recommend checking out the Peak Salvation podcast. [1] It’s made by a former FB exec who worked in an Amazon fulfillment center during the holiday rush. Very enlightening and thought-provoking.<p>1: <a href="https://peaksalvation.com/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://peaksalvation.com/</a>
It sounds wrong to call them Amazon's robots when they are made by a company called Agility Robotics.<p>Its like saying amazon's robot dogs after a boston dynamics demo
People tend to react negatively to automation because of the intended job losses. This is misdirected (but legitimate) fear and anger.<p>In a more just world, automation would mean we would all simply have to work less. We will likely reach a point where not all of us are required to do work. We already have a lot of BS jobs. No one enjoys working in am Amazon warehouse.<p>Instead, automation will be used to further concentrate wealth into the hands of very few while suppressing wages for those still required.<p>This isn’t a problem of automation. It’s a problem of capitalism. Instead of Jeff Bezos having amputee $50 billion, maybe we should provide for the basic needs of everyone else instead?
When will the first robot commit suicide?<p>"Don't worry, they're just robots they are not sentient!"<p>I can picture engineers racing to block this behavior and the robots coming up with ever more elaborate suicide methods.