The Droids are coming for our jobs
- California licenses driverless cars with no through to the coming economic collapse robotics is causing.
- As technology rapidly advances countless millions of driver related jobs will be abolished for humans: no truckers, taxi drivers, airplane pilots, bus drivers, farm equipment operators etc. Yes, we are totally screwed and destined to joblessness and poverty.
Google's souped-up Lexus SUVs are the biggest fleet, with 25 vehicles. Mercedes and the Volkswagen Group of America have two vehicles each, said Bernard Soriano, the DMV official overseeing the state's "autonomous vehicle" regulation-writing process. A "handful" of other companies are applying for permits, he said.
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The permits formally regulate testing that already was underway. Google alone is closing in on 1 million miles. The technology giant has bet heavily on the vehicles, which navigate using sophisticated sensors and detailed maps reports NBC News San Diego.
California passed its law after Nevada and Florida and before Michigan. The federal government has not acted, and national regulations appear to be years away.
It's impossible to know the total number of self-driving cars being tested on public roads because, unlike California and Nevada, Michigan does not require special permits to test self-driving cars on public roads.
Toyota, Chrysler, Ford and General Motors are "all running around here with some form of autonomous vehicle," said James Fackler, assistant administrator for the Michigan Department of State, which registers motor vehicles. Carmakers do not need a permit -- manufacturer's license plates are enough, and those plates can also be used on future models or other kinds of experimental cars.
Nevada has issued several test vehicle licenses to Google, VW and the auto supplier Continental, according to its Department of Motor Vehicles.
In Florida, only Audi has tested self-driving technology and no testing is ongoing, according to a spokesman for the state's motor vehicles department.
With California's testing rules in effect, the DMV is drafting regulations that will govern self-driving cars once they are ready for the general public.
Andrew McAfee
Are droids taking our jobs?
Robot Learning to Fly Airplanes Just say goodbye to airline pilot jobs. . The little robot in the picture above is a PIBOT, a small, very low-cost humanoid (actually a Bioloid Premium from Robotis). It's been slightly modified to be able to work the controls of a scaled-down, simulated aircraft cockpit, as in the pic above. PIBOT is able to identify and use all of the buttons and switches and stuff that you'd find in the cockpit of a normal light aircraft designed for humans. . Read more: Spectrum.org - robotics |
Robots Move Into Small Factories A new breed of so-called collaborative machines—designed to work alongside people in close settings—is changing the way some of America's smaller manufacturers do their jobs. . The machines, priced as low as $20,000, provide such companies—small jewelry makers and toy makers among them—with new incentives to automate to increase overall productivity and lower labor costs. (Translation: fire workers and replace them with robots.) . At Panek Precision Inc., a Northbrook, Ill., machine shop, 21 shiny new robots hum as they place metal parts into cutting machines and remove the parts after they are done. It's a tedious and oily task once handled by machine operators who earn about $16.50 an hour. . One new robot doubled the output from a machine that was previously operated by a worker "because robots work overnight and don't take lunch breaks and they just keep going," says Gregg Panek, the company's president. In some cases, the robots, which are single articulated arms, can even hold a part while it's getting cut since there is no danger of injury. . Read more: Wall Street Journal |
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