Amazon Drones, Meet Your Mothership

[John F]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

How is a self driving car going to know when an emergency is developing? Will it be able to tell is something is developing half a mile down the road?
When I am driving can I can see if something is starting to happen and maybe do something to avoid it.

"Video shows Tesla’s new radar detect accident — and avoid it"

https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/8d3f577...new-radar.html

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

How is a self driving car going to know when an emergency is developing? Will it be able to tell is something is developing half a mile down the road?
When I am driving can I can see if something is starting to happen and maybe do something to avoid it.

It seems it can be done. The car beeps and stops seconds before a crash actually happens:



Note to self: I should refresh the page before posting.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

How is a self driving car going to know when an emergency is developing? Will it be able to tell is something is developing half a mile down the road?
When I am driving can I can see if something is starting to happen and maybe do something to avoid it.

Early on, it will be tough. As more and more cars are "self driving", it will be much much safer; Imagine every car "knowing" what every other car is doing. You could tag humans/pets with tracking devices to help prevent auto/animal collisions.

After all, it is only software, so anything is possible.

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Automation isn't eliminatng any jobs.

Simply not true. One need only visit the local Walmart and the human-free checkout section to see that. The car industry has been hit for years, and will continue to be.

Reality check: Manufacturers returning to U.S. may mean jobs for robots, not people.

Originally Posted by SleepyBob

Generally speaking, technology advances eliminate specific jobs, but at the same time, they create even more jobs than they eliminate because of the potential they open.

Do you have data/links to support that. It's certainly counter-intuitive.

[DiapDealer]

Who manufactures/sells/installs/maintains Walmart's self-checkout machines? Who trains people to manufacture/sell/install/maintain the self-checkout machines that Walmart bought? Who helps the customer having trouble with the self-checkout machine at Walmart? Who trains the Walmart employee how to help customers having trouble with the self-checkout machine at Walmart? Who monitors the self-checkout machines at Walmart to make sure someone isn't smuggling merchandise through without payng for it? Who installs/maintains the cameras/monitoring equpment that the employee Walmart employee hired to monitor theft (a direct result of installing self-checkout machines) uses? Who trained them how to use the monitoring equipment?

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Who manufactures/sells/installs/maintains Walmart's self-checkout machines? Who trains people to manufacture/sell/install/maintain the self-checkout machines that Walmart bought? Who helps the customer having trouble with the self-checkout machine at Walmart? Who trains the Walmart employee how to help customers having trouble with the self-checkout machine ar Walmart? Who monitors the self-checkout machines at Walmart to make sure someone isn't smuggling merchandise through without payng for it?

Most of the support is probably done by one person whose main job is to do something else, like refilling or some such.

With regard to manufacturing and creating those machines, yes, there are new jobs, but they are on a much higher level than the jobs that disappear.

OK, if you use drones to deliver packages, you eliminate the mailman, but get jobs in the fields of creating drones. Said mailman can probably never work there, because if he could, he would probably have done so already.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Who manufactures/sells/installs/maintains Walmart's self-checkout machines? Who trains people to manufacture/sell/install/maintain the self-checkout machines that Walmart bought? Who helps the customer having trouble with the self-checkout machine at Walmart? Who trains the Walmart employee how to help customers having trouble with the self-checkout machine ar Walmart? Who monitors the self-checkout machines at Walmart to make sure someone isn't smuggling merchandise through without payng for it?

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Gardenman

How is a self driving car going to know when an emergency is developing? Will it be able to tell is something is developing half a mile down the road?
When I am driving can I can see if something is starting to happen and maybe do something to avoid it.

Depends on the nature of the emergency.
If it's onboard, it will have sensors. It'll know of mechanical problems sooner than a human would, before they lead to failure.
If it is weather or traffic, it will be plugged in to existing weather and traffic monitoring systems for continuous updates.
If it is local, the onboard sensors will detect.

These things aren't science fiction or hypotheticals, they are real. Actual solid objects that are already out and about. It's not a what-if but a what is. They are designed and they work. They are being built and deployed.

Raising hypothetical roadblocks won't change the fact that this is happening. Now.

[Katsunami]

If something happens within the car, it can be detected by sensors. It's the same as with building and programming machines and robots. If you put enough sensors into a device, you can detect everything, down to the functioning of single valves.

Even things like a crash can be detected; if you suddenly see an object that doesn't move, while you get closer and closer, the car needs to break. A computer can determine this in a fraction of a second.

"I see stuff...."
"I'm closing in..." (maybe the object is just going slower than I am)

Repeat a few times. If still closing in after 3 or 5 cycles, break. Those 3-5 cycles take fractions of seconds.

[fjtorres]

Robotics and automation aren't just for transport.
There is an entire "secret" industry of agricultural tech including robot vehicles and tools.
Like these and more:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/next/te...n-and-sensors/

And this breed of automation isn't displacing anybody. Instead it is making up for labor shortfalls and amplifying the output of the existing labor force.

Lots of amazing things are happening out there, if we'll only pay attention.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Said mailman can probably never work there, because if he could, he would probably have done so already.

That's silly. It's cart-before-the-horse. Said mailman doesn't work there (drone creation/sales/maintenance) because there wasn't a demand for it when he was job-huntng. There's nothng stopping him from doing so after (not that I see drone-delvery eliminating that many postal service jobs).

Things change. Always have. Every innovation since the dawn of man has cost some people their job/position--while creating different (and usually more) positions/industries to be filled by the next generatin of job-seekers. Why suddenly start crying about it?

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

That's silly. It's cart-before-the-horse. Said mailman doesn't work there (drone creation/sales/maintenance) because there wasn't a demand for it when he was job-huntng. There's nothng stopping him from doing so after (not that I see drone-delvery eliminating that many postal service jobs).

There's everything stopping him. Creating and/or maintaining drones (machinery) requires some level of education. If he had that, or could have had it, he would never have worked as a mailman. He would have been working as an engineer in one field or another.

Things change. Always have. Every innovation since the dawn of man has cost some people their job/position--while creating different (and usually more) positions/industries to be filled by the next generatin of job-seekers. Why suddenly start crying about it?

The problem is that the jobs created are very often on a much higher level than the ones that are eliminated.

Where are you going to put waiters to work, after the waiter robot is introduced? As dishwashers? Nah. Already a machine for that. Bus/taxi drivers? Nah. Cars are automated already. Mailman? Mwoah. Amazon automated that using drones. Mechanical Engineer / Software Engineer to create all of these devices himself? Forget it. He doesn't have the education, for whatever reason. No money to study, or not enough intelligence to study at the required level.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

There's everything stopping him. Creating and/or maintaining drones (machinery) requires some level of education. If he had that, or could have had it, he would never have worked as a mailman. He would have been working as an engineer in one field or another.

Not true. Not every position in the drone industry is going to require an engineer-level education. Besides, I guarantee you a postal job is more difficult to get (and education-level has nothing at all to do with the reason for that).

Originally Posted by Katsunami

The problem is that the jobs created are very often on a much higher level than the ones that are eliminated.

Correction: the jobs created are almost always on a higher level of specificity than the ones eliminated. "Much" higher is debatable. I don't know that the education level required always is, either. Again... pointless education level requirements are the fault of stupid company policies--not automation. A degree has never been that reliable of an indicator of intelligence, aptitude, or preparedness.

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Where are you going to put waiters to work, after the waiter robot is introduced? As dishwashers? Nah. Already a machine for that. Bus/taxi drivers? Nah. Cars are automated already. Mailman? Mwoah. Amazon automated that using drones. Mechanical Engineer / Software Engineer to create all of these devices himself? Forget it. He doesn't have the education, for whatever reason. No money to study, or not enough intelligence to study at the required level.

Nothing new under the sun here. Where did the Buggy-whip manufacturer's employees go to work when cars came along? This is the way of the world. Always has been. I just don't get the angst.

[SleepyBob]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

Simply not true. One need only visit the local Walmart and the human-free checkout section to see that. The car industry has been hit for years, and will continue to be.

Reality check: Manufacturers returning to U.S. may mean jobs for robots, not people.



Do you have data/links to support that. It's certainly counter-intuitive.

Here's one link. I grabbed it at random, but google seems to pull up a lot of similar ones.

https://www.theguardian.com/business...rs-data-census

[Pajamaman]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

And this breed of automation isn't displacing anybody. Instead it is making up for labor shortfalls and amplifying the output of the existing labor force.

Not so. In general, automation in agriculture does not create jobs, it takes them away. It's obvious, really.

Automated farming: good news for food security, bad news for job security?

many of these technologies require very little human labour. For example, Japanese company Spread has recently announced that robots will carry out all but one of the tasks required to grow tens of thousands of lettuces each day in its indoor automated farm.

The issue of labour is even more important for the economies of the global south, where there are fewer urban job opportunities. In those countries, technologies that take labour out of the fields may undermine efforts to reduce poverty and enhance development.

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Said mailman doesn't work there (drone creation/sales/maintenance) because there wasn't a demand for it when he was job-huntng. There's nothng stopping him from doing so after (not that I see drone-delvery eliminating that many postal service jobs).

The problem with that argument is that once the drone is built by our hypothetical re-positioned postal-worker, the drone will go on doing the ex-postal-workers job day after to day for a long time. Whereas the construction of the drone would have taken a day, unless a robot builds it, in which case it would be much cheaper and much quicker.