Anheuser-Busch already has robot loaders at their Columbus, OH brewery. I've never seen robot unloading.
The robotic truck is farther away, imo, because people will be afraid of the idea. The people in cars are already afraid of the trucks, I don't think a driverless truck would make them feel any better.
Yes, good point.
A spectacular tragedy could set the idea back many years.
Beer pallets are perfect for automation.
I live quite close to Amazon's prototype grocery warehouse near Seattle.
They bought Kiva several years back, which builds “order fulfillment” robots.
Those little things swarm all over a warehouse, picking individual items, all shapes and sizes and weight, then delivering them to a central, human packing station.
Last time I was there, several years ago, they had just begun to experiment with an unloader.
The demonstration I saw involved pallets of detergent, which were on sale at a special price.
They were also experimenting with Kiva robots stocking shelves rather than picking from them.
Amazon Fresh delivers mostly to individual customers, so they stock and distribute more like a Safeway store than a Costco warehouse.
I love this technology, but it is going to cause revolutionary economic changes for low skilled workers.
Manufacturing middle managers are about to get crushed, too.
Traditionally, collecting data, organizing it, and writing reports was their primary function.
SAP and Oracle are slowly but surely putting those guys out on the street.