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Robots Join Final Assembly Line At US Auto Plant
moon_unit2 writes "MIT Technology Review has a story about BMW's new collaborative final-assembly-line robots. The move could be significant in the ongoing automation of work, as robots have previously been incapable of doing such jobs, and too dangerous to work in close proximity to humans. Robots like the ones at BMW's South Carolina plant will also cooperate with human workers, by handing them a wrench when they need it. Perhaps the next big shift in labor could be robot-human collaboration."
Next the robots will want to unionize.
"Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."-THG
What is the plan for when no human need lift a finger? Are we just going to kill off all the unuseful population? Sterilize 'em, slap 'em on the ass, and send them off into the BLM land? Put them in uniforms and send them to war? Hook them up to the Matrix? Hmm, only one or two of these suggestions even sounds remotely plausible.
We're on the cusp of having robots that pick fruit, for pete's sake. Floor-cleaning robots are becoming ubiquitous. Pretty soon the only jobs left to someone without an advanced degree will be plumber, and grade 1 robot repairman.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
That was a good example of human-robot collaboration.
"No matter where you go, there you are." -- Buckaroo Banzai
I think you nailed it. The 8 hour workday needs to be shortened.
Robot human collaboration? I think you meant human cyborg relations.
sig?
and he types in the code. Then the next one... I would hang myself rather than do this job 8 hours a day.
And you wouldn't if you had the old job? You know, where letters come down a conveyor and you sort them into one of a few other conveyors? That's the exact same thing except you get paper cuts.
W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
The move could prove a significant in the ongoing automation of work, as robots have previously been incapable of doing such jobs, and too dangerous to work in close proximity to humans.
The "ongoing automation of work" has been going on for centuries, and will continue thank goodness. Yes, that means rooms of human calculators were displaced by the device you are looking at right now, laundresses were displaced by automatic clothes washers, human dishwashers displaced by their automatic equivalents ... (and the last two helped half of humanity get out of the house and into far more rewarding, productive things).
There is always more work to do. If you look at the jobs of 50 years ago, I expect a large portion are gone now, yet people have found new, more productive work. Where would the software developers come from if they were still sewing shirts and digging coal?
The drawback isn't for society, but for individual workers. The economy as a whole becomes more productive, but the individual whose life-long skills become obsolete may be out of luck. We need to find a way to help and take care of those people; all of society benefits, while the entire cost is born by a very few.
I believe there's a Kia plant in Kentucky where the vast majority of the car is assembled by robots. I couldn't find it but I once watched a video of it and it's fascinating.
It essentially starts with roll steel, then stamping, welding, painting, final assembly and so on. It's completely removed the human labor component from automobile manufacturing. And one thing that amuses me - labor used to be the biggest expense of a car. Now it's electricity at a fraction the rate. So why do cars still cost so much?