Robotic tire changer

[IndyIan]

I guess you could have one guy that knows what he's doing supervise a few of these machines at once. But I think lots of manual labor jobs can be automated to a 90% success rate, but there's always the cases where somebody has to look at something, and make some decisions. Does this machine check for loose suspension or look at the brakes leaking fluid... Maybe some tire swappers don't look at anything but the lugs, but most would do a brief inspection.

 

[SC Maintenance]

And this will be just about as popular.

I quite like self checkout. Keeps the 16 year old from putting my strawberries on the bottom with the canned goods on top.

 

[Accent Abuser]

Of course they'll start by automating the simplest thing, because it's simplest to achieve. As the technology progresses, more complex things will be automated.

The video's claims aside, the point of automating this (or any) task is not to make it faster or better. The point is to replace humans.

The robot may be ponderous (for now), but it never calls in sick, never argues with the boss, never earns overtime, never takes a smoke break or a bathroom break, never fails a drug test, and will never join a union or claim workers comp or file an EEOC complaint. No need to pay benefits to the robot (or juggle schedules to avoid it), and no need to pay unemployment if you get rid of it.

Humans are messy and unreliable, and they cut into profits. Cut loose that rabble, and you don't have to pretend you care about them to keep them working anymore. Pay no attention to their squawking about loyalty and professionalism; the robot is way more loyal to you, and if you have to invest money in it, at least you own it.

Ha, I get paid $3 a tire where I work, good luck finding a machine that has lower overhead than that.

 

[eljefino]

I worked in master control in television, when it started I was responsible for one video channel and kept it looking pretty good. The robots moved in and at the end I would clock in at 5 am and see what carnage the robots did in our unmanned hours since 8pm the previous night. Job made me a glorified IT guy. And like all disfunctional IT systems, I would come up with backups and workarounds to keep things running smoothly (most of the time) then they'd see me "sitting there" and throw more stuff at me.

I for one don't welcome our robot overlords!