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perrinoia t1_is5w8si wrote

Reply to comment by el_gee in Rise of delivery robots leaves drivers fearful of job losses | Context by el_gee

I saw a video that matches the story your read. The robot waited for a policeman to raise the caution tape, then continued down the sidewalk. The crime had not been committed on the sidewalk. The caution tape only crossed the sidewalk because the police needed something to hang the caution tape on.

There were a bunch of cops standing there, watching the robot cooler drive by.
Most of the comments on the video were geared towards the question, "What if the robot was transporting a bomb to kill the cops?" The cops would most certainly be dead, as they just stood there, curiously watching the robot drive around them.

In regards to robots taking our jobs, I personally look forward to it. I used to be a delivery driver for a sandwich shop. I put a lot of wear and tear on my vehicle for minimum wage and didn't get compensated for the gas, either. The company charged customers a $2 delivery fee on each order, but didn't pay me anything extra per delivery. Also, 100% of delivery orders paid by card because our company had a no cash delivery policy, and there was no mention of tipping on their receipt, so nobody thought to tip me. All of the delivery customers assumed that the whole $2 fee went to me, but it didn't.

As for the robot vandals... I'm pretty sure those robots are covered in cameras and I can't think of a reason why those recordings couldn't be used in a court of law.

Also, are these robots autonomous or remote controlled? They might have an autopilot feature, but I'm fairly certain there's a human taking over every time the bot encounters an obstruction, such as the police crime scene tape.

I'm willing to bet it's like self checkout vs cashiers. There's still an employee supervising the self checkout kiosks, but one employee can manage several kiosks vs one cashier required plus an optional bagger and sometimes a supervisor at each register.

You might have one robot operator working from home for a whole fleet of semi-autonomous robots vs a whole fleet of delivery drivers. My local dominos, for instance, has the tiniest parking lot, which is typically mostly occupied by dominos delivery vehicles. There's another pizza restaurant downtown with no parking at all, and their delivery cars are usually blocking the road, sidewalk, fire hydrant, etc...

Likewise, app based delivery drivers have a nasty habit of stopping in the middle of the road instead of finding a nearby parking spot. They park as close to the double yellow line as possible, open their driver side door into the oncoming traffic lane, and leave the door wide open while they waddle up to the door step, ring the bell, and carry on a conversation with their customer, obviously hoping for a better tip.

So, I'm completely pro-robot laborers and am wondering how much Yeti rover operators make...

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el_gee OP t1_is5xo9c wrote

That's a really interesting perspective that hasn't come up from others, thanks for sharing that. Although, I do wonder about whether the final experience gets worse as fewer people are involved. Someone else commented about how their fries would be cold and their shakes warm by the time they arrived. And going by the self checkout example, I still go to the manned tills unless I have just a couple of items.

I don't know what the right answer is honestly, but there's a part of me that also just likes the idea of delivery droids - and maybe the future is indeed going to be about rover operators. That would be very cool.

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perrinoia t1_is61jjp wrote

I'm sure it would take more energy and add more weight, but perhaps the delivery bots should have 2-4 temperature controlled compartments. refrigerate one compartment and warm another. Freeze one and bake another... That last idea is probably bad... People can't even receive coffee through a window without suing for millions. I wouldn't want the liability of having customers retrieving their food straight out of a roving oven.

So, 2 compartments it is... Cooling and warming. Could even be passive rather than powered, using ice packs and hot stones, or something. Although, an argument could be made that saving weight is more energy efficient. I'd love to see comparative research on this.

I overheard a [boomer] coworker bragging about telling off a grocery store employee for directing them to the self checkout kiosk. His response was, "No, honey, I'm not going to do your job for you. I don't work here." Then he complained that the employee rolled her eyes at him AND he complained about how they no longer have a cashier AND a bagger, and the cashier bagged his bread and eggs on the bottom and put heavy stuff on top!

I interrupted, "You do realize that if everyone used the self checkout kiosk, your products would be bagged exactly how you like it, and there could be more employees in the isles helping you find stuff or less employees total making everything cheaper, right?"

They argued about buying produce without barcodes or products with damaged barcodes or security devices. I explained that for every group of self checkout kiosks, there is an employee to assist with those types of items, but most transactions are simple enough that it's faster to just do it yourself than deal with an underpaid cashier who has had all of the joy sucked out of their life by a bunch of Karens arguing about the validity of their coupons.

So, in summation. I'm pro-automation all the way from the farm to the table. I use self service whenever possible so humans can be free to do things other than slave over menial tasks for minimum wage.

The only difference between minimum wage and slave labor is the beatings. Minimum wage means 100% of your paycheck goes towards rent and food and other living expenses. Nothing left over for retirement savings, vacations, etc... Slaves were provided with housing and food.

I say we give those shit jobs to the robots and create better jobs for humans, like designing, operating, and maintaining the robots. Art, entertainment, sports, etc...

That being said, I'm extremely against bots in advertising. I trust a seller with 1 good review more than I trust a seller with a million, these days. I find myself exclusively reading the negative reviews to differentiate between actual customers who had a bad experience versus trolls ranting about things completely unrelated to their purchase.

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Rauleigh t1_is7wqfp wrote

Idk that more automation means people actually get better jobs. sitting in front of a computer managing a fleet of robots sounds about as soul crushing as being a delivery person or cashier. People have unhealthy amounts of screentime without it being their full time job. It would be slightly cooler to design and fix the robots but where are minimum wage workers gonna get the money to get that kind of education. The reason people are scared of automation taking their jobs is cuz it doesn't come with equal employment opportunities to the job that the company no longer needs to pay them for. The world's gonna just keep changing tho that's life idfk

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perrinoia t1_is89o8e wrote

There's currently more jobs than employees want. Employers need automation to solve the "employment crisis". Consumers need automation to slow inflation. Employees need automation to meet unrealistic performance measures.

I dunno how old you are, but I recall playing paperboy on Nintendo being more fun than actually delivering papers.

That's what I imagine operating delivery bots would be like. Playing a video game. You'd get points for efficiency and avoiding vandals...

I'd play that game, especially if it paid me to play!

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