The Robots Are Coming, And They Are Replacing Warehouse Workers And Fast Food Employees

TEC ^ | 05/24/2014 | Michael Snyder

[SeekAndFind]

There are already more than 101 million working age Americans that are not employed and 20 percent of the families in the entire country do not have a single member that has a job. So what in the world are we going to do when robots start taking millions upon millions more of our jobs? Thanks to technology, the balance of power between employers and workers in this country is shifting dramatically in favor of the employers. These days, many employers are wondering why they are dealing with so many human worker "headaches" when they can just use technology to get the same tasks done instead. When you replace a human worker with a robot, you solve a whole bunch of problems. Robots never take a day off, they never get tired, they never get sick, they never complain, they never show up late, they never waste time on the Internet and they always do what you tell them to do. In addition, robotic technology has advanced to the point where it is actually cheaper to buy robots than it is to hire humans for a vast variety of different tasks. From the standpoint of societal efficiency, this is a good thing. But what happens when robots are able to do just about everything less expensively and more efficiently than humans can? Where will our jobs come from?

And this is not something that is coming at some point in "the future".

This is already happening.

According to CNN, there will be 10,000 robots working to fulfill customer orders in Amazon.com warehouses by the end of 2014...

Amazon will be using 10,000 robots in its warehouses by the end of the year.

CEO Jeff Bezos told investors at a shareholder meeting Wednesday that he expects to significantly increase the number of robots used to fulfill customer orders.

Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love Amazon. And if robots can get me my stuff faster and less expensively that sounds great.

But what if everyone starts using these kinds of robots?

What will that do to warehouse jobs?

PC World has just done a report on a new warehouse robot known as "UBR-1". This robot is intended to perform tasks "normally done by human workers"...

The UBR-1 is a 4-foot tall, one-armed robot that could make warehouses and factories more efficient by performing tasks normally done by human workers.

Unlike the industrial robots widely used in manufacturing today—usually large machines isolated from people for safety reasons—this robot can work alongside humans or autonomously in a workspace filled with people.

This little robot costs $50,000, and it can work all day and all night. It just needs a battery change every once in a while. The creators of this robot envision it performing a vast array of different tasks...

“We see the robot as doing tasks, they could be dull, they could be dirty, they could be dangerous and doing them repetitively all day in a light manufacturing environment,” said Melonee Wise, Unbounded Robotics CEO and co-founder. Those tasks include stocking shelves, picking up objects and assembling parts.

The UBR-1 isn’t designed for small component assembly, but it can manipulate objects as small as dice or a Lego piece, Wise said. Unbounded Robotics is targeting companies that want some automation to speed up their manufacturing process, but can’t afford to fully automate their businesses.

To many people this may sound very exciting.

But what if a robot like that took your job?

Would it be exciting then?

Of course you can't outlaw robots. And you can't force companies to hire human workers.

But we could potentially have major problems in our society as jobs at the low end of the wage scale quickly disappear.

According to CNN, restaurants all over the nation are going to automated service, and a recent University of Oxford study concluded that there is a 92 percent chance that most fast food jobs will be automated in the coming years...

Panera Bread is the latest chain to introduce automated service, announcing last month that it plans to bring self-service ordering kiosks as well as a mobile ordering option to all its locations within the next three years. The news follows moves from Chili's and Applebee's to place tablets on their tables, allowing diners to order and pay without interacting with human wait staff at all.

Panera, which spent $42 million developing its new system, claims it isn't planning any job cuts as a result of the technology, but some analysts see this kind of shift as unavoidable for the industry.

In a widely cited paper released last year, University of Oxford researchers estimated that there is a 92% chance that fast-food preparation and serving will be automated in the coming decades.

It is being projected that other types of jobs will soon be automated as well...

Delivery drivers could be replaced en masse by self-driving cars, which are likely to hit the market within a decade or two, or even drones. In food preparation, there are start-ups offering robots for bartending and gourmet hamburger preparation. A food processing company in Spain now uses robots to inspect heads of lettuce on a conveyor belt, throwing out those that don't meet company standards, the Oxford researchers report.

Could you imagine such a world?

When self-driving vehicles take over, what will happen to the 3.1 million Americans that drive trucks for a living?

Our planet is changing at a pace that is almost inconceivable.

Over the past decade, the big threat to our jobs has been workers on the other side of the globe that live in countries where it is legal to pay slave labor wages.

But now even those workers are having their jobs taken away by robots. For example, just check out what is happening in China...

Foxconn has been planning to buy 1 million robots to replace human workers and it looks like that change, albeit gradual, is about to start.

The company is allegedly paying $25,000 per robot – about three times a worker’s average salary – and they will replace humans in assembly tasks. The plans have been in place for a while – I spoke to Foxconn reps about this a year ago – and it makes perfect sense. Humans are messy, they want more money, and having a half-a-million of them in one factory is a recipe for unrest. But what happens after the halls are clear of careful young men and women and instead full of whirring robots?

Perhaps you think that your job could never be affected because you do something that requires a "human touch" like caring for the elderly.

Well, according to Reuters, robots are moving into that arena as well...

Imagine you're 85, and living alone. Your children are halfway across the country, and you're widowed. You have a live-in aide - but it's not human. Your personal robot reminds you to take your medicine, monitors your diet and exercise, plays games with you, and even helps you connect with family members on the Internet.

And robots are even threatening extremely skilled professions such as doctors. For instance, just check out this excerpt from a Bloomberg article entitled "Doctor Robot Will See You Shortly"...

Johnson & Johnson proposes to replace anesthesiologists during simple procedures such as colonoscopies -- not with nurse practitioners, but with machines. Sedasys, which dispenses propofol and monitors a patient automatically, was recently approved for use in healthy adult patients who have no particular risk of complications. Johnson & Johnson will lease the machines to doctor’s offices for $150 per procedure -- cleverly set well below the $600 to $2,000 that anesthesiologists usually charge.

And this is just the beginning. In a previous article, I discussed the groundbreaking study by Dr. Carl Frey and Dr. Michael Osborne of Oxford University which came to the conclusion that 47 percent of all U.S. jobs could be automated within the next 20 years.

47 percent?

That is crazy.

What will the middle class do as their jobs are taken away?

The world that we live in is becoming a radically different place than the one that we grew up in.

The robots are coming, and they are going to take millions of our jobs.

[The Working Man]

When you replace a human worker with a robot, you solve a whole bunch of problems. Robots never take a day off, they never get tired, they never get sick, they never complain, they never show up late, they never waste time on the Internet and they always do what you tell them to do.

---

They also DON’T earn a salary and they DON’T purchase the product you or anyone else produces. That means they are also a dead end on the Economic ‘Circle-of-life’.

[ClearCase_guy]

While I would never want to force any particular lifestyle on anyone, I suspect that if federal lands were set aside in a new form of land grant, with the expectation that people would farm, churn butter, spin wool -- not like the Amish, but with decent modern technology produced in robot-staffed factories -- I suspect quite a few people would choose that lifestyle.

Famine wouldn't be a concern. New tractors could be delivered from the factory if needed (not necessarily "free" but somewhat like an EBT card). People would be expected to work, but they'd have some purpose and control over their lives.

It wouldn't be an attractive choice for everyone, but the alternative may be to live in a high-rise, in a bad neighborhood, watch bad TV, and wait for the monthly check.

I see the vast majority of people getting two basic choices: live in the ghetto, or live on a farm. And right now, the farm choice isn't exactly available, but laws could shift to make that a viable choice. This was discussed in England in the early 20th century under the slogan "three acres and a cow". It was pushed by GK Chesterton and Hillaire Belloc under the name of Distributism --an economic system designed as Christian Economics.

I'm not saying it's flawless, but with the rise of automation, people really do have to think about "What will I do?"

[cripplecreek]

Sounds like a union rally in here this morning doesn’t it?

[VietVet]

Ever read Vonnegut’s “Player Piano”? Or Simac’s “How To”?

[nathanbedford]

I am not a Luddite and do not believe that the solution lies in the destruction of technology or even in control or direction of the technology which should be untrammeled as much as possible in a free-market.

I think the solution can come from undoing what government has done, from dealing with some of the unintended consequences of government solutions which have distorted the culture as it has distorted the marketplace. The first place I would start is with the privatization and rationalization of the education establishment. Until we can produce an educated product that can contribute to a technological age, we are going to see a society with greater and greater distortions and ever greater and greater demands for government intervention to undo those distortions.

I believe that most of the distortions come from government and not from the marketplace but the electorate, guided by the media and academia, will no doubt blame the marketplace and turn to the government for relief.

[jonrick46]

I can imagine the job where you will make sure the robot is doing what it is supposed to. Those pesky robots will make a real mess of things if they can.

Actually, I see robot arms failing to pick up things, dropping things and going into program lock up after power surges and outages. I see cases not being sealed properly, conveyer jam ups and critical production pieces wearing out. This is automation in a world made as perfect as possible. A free roving robot will work in an ever changing, imperfect world. What kind of chaos will that robot create?

[cll]

For the government this will be easy: tax corporations for each robot-hour to support welfare for idle humans.

[Mark was here]

We already have robots. They’re called Democrat voters. They vote Democrat over, and over, and over -— as long as they keep getting their government benefits that’s what they do.
What better definition of a robot is there?

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Yep, I have always thought they were giving up their humanity, when they react and vote like robots.

[GladesGuru]

Ultimately, the question of robots is merely a smaller subset of “How will production be distributed?” - a question at the core cause of more wars and revolutions than any religion.

When wool was more widely available thanks to power sources being harnessed to weaving machines, an early form of automation occurred - and society was roiled and eventually emerged far better off.

History does repeat, and this time can we do a better job of transitioning?

[Rides_A_Red_Horse]

Crazy question just crossed my mind, will my robotic bodyguard have to have a gun permit and be licensed to kill?

---

When he saves your life don’t for get to tell him “Domo Arigato, Mr Roboto.”

[GladesGuru]

“With their wonderful educations, maybe they can be “sex workers.”

Gives a whole new meaning to the term, “entry level job.””

Disney’s Animatronic Lab could have outdone the “Stepford wife” long ago.

[Cvengr]

At least a robot won’t spit in your food.

Instead it squirts 10D40 into the food from its oil can.

[Cvengr]

Good time to become a Robotics Engineer.

[GladesGuru]

Regarding post #34, I suggest interested FRiends email to their gubment persons not only the post, but rather more. Go to SHEMITTA, FOR THE LAND IS MINE and then read the other data this gifted FReeper has made available - for free, too.

Federal and State lands must be returned to private ownership because AgencyPersons will not care for them as will a private land owner. Carry_Okie has traced that thread back to a point in Western history somewhat earlier than the Ancient Greeks - specifically to a mountain in a desert where data recorded in Leviticus and Deuteronomy describe conditions and decisions facing us here in America today.

The Wilderness Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act - all may be accurately termed “The Great Un-Natural Acts” in that they describe what never was and can never be.

We can do better. We can’t afford not to do better. Carry_Okie has created a starting point - the question is what will be done with what he has offered.

PS I am neither a Believer(wish I was, but ...) not do I receive anything from suggesting Carry_Okie’s works - other than the insights/perspectives I found there.

PPS Those insights/perspectives are why I suggest them to you, my FRiends.

[Carry_Okie]

Disney’s Animatronic Lab could have outdone the “Stepford wife” long ago.

To quote Cy Borg from Joe's Garage,

Plook me now you savage rascal.
Too hard...
Too hard!
You're plooking too hard, on me!!!

In quoting a great prophet, we endeavor to be historically accurate.

[GladesGuru]

Sell off Federal lands and State lands and remove the regulatory burden imposed by Fedzilla/Statezilla.

Many of the Urban Feral blacks in Big Sh*ty ghettos were from families that once were able to make a living and produce a surplus from small farms. Same for the Latrinos.

Make possible land ownership and you assure a voting class of producers rather than the multi-generational welfare swine eating out America’s substance on a scale King George never dreamed of attempting.

I am aware of teh lower IQ issue in the above mentioned populations. I am also awware that their ancestors coped and so can they.

But, first we must remove the Agencies and assumptions which make welfare serfs of out fellow Americans.

YMMV

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Boredom will be the scourge of this sort of future.

Boredom is the reason people eagerly listen to “the news” - and you see what that gets us. It gets us “liberals,” is what.

[rlmorel]

Agreed.

[sasquatch]

get the government out of land management

s/b out of mismanagement...Found a few hotspots yesterday. They're toast tomorrow by 11.

[PeterPrinciple]

Many of the people in government and business act like robots already. They do not think, and can only do things a certain way. If something is odd they cannot complete the task. But they are poor imitations, a real robot might be refreshing........................