Robotics vs Jobs

Amazon Prime Air Drone:

As we continue to move on in our society, our technologies advance with us. We see them do many unimaginable things that we never thought could be possible every day, and they have become a very useful tool to us. Now that we live in a world where many different types of robotics exist and do many different tasks for us at will, there are some underlying worries that come with robotics and how important they have became. The screenshot on the right is a Amazon Prime Air drone, its purpose it to deliver packages at a very fast time span. Based of the article made by Rishabh Jain, “Amazon claims that customers could get their packages within 30 minutes of ordering”. Due to having fast shipping this makes the drone very useful. It also is promoted due to not burning fuel, which it is stated that “Amazon’s drone delivery would reduce its dependence on polluting vehicles.” There are clearly many positives to this robotic as we can see, but if it can deliver an item ordered online within that kind of time strain, this raises concern about delivery jobs, and if it will make human delivery obsolete. This could make many people lose their jobs, and if that happened this would be a tragedy.

Self-Driving Vehicles:

There are many different ways of transportation that we use on a daily basis. From riding a plane to driving a vehicle. We are currently looking into creating self driving vehicles, however this is another robotic that raises some eyebrows. Which is understandable, due to it being a big transition on our everyday lives. Although this would change our lives with personal transportation, this robotic would also effect jobs. In an article by Adam Hayes, he states that “If cars, trucks, and buses start driving themselves, people who earn their living from driving these vehicles will suddenly find themselves out of a job”. This is a big concern due to how many people rely on this type of job profession, there are millions of people who have to transport people and items for their job. If self driving vehicles became the new relevant robotic, this could be a big concern on the job market. Not only that, but if there are self driving cars there is potential of them being hacked. Which would result in a lot of causalities and other horrible incidents.

Cashiers:

Self-checkout counters are a type of robotic that is being used right now as we speak. They can be found within many different stores, as for the picture on the right, it is in Walmart. These are typically used when people have a smaller amount of items in their possession that they want to purchase, and they don’t want to wait in long lines with an actual cashier. These can definitely be a helpful alternative for people checking out at stores, but the concerns still remain when it comes to robotics, what kind of effect do they have on the job market. BBC News said “Don’t expect traditional self-service checkout to disappear”. It seems that there are many people who don’t like the whole self-checkout option, due the problems they tend to have. However, improvements are on the way to these types of robotics so this could change the way people feel about self-check outs. If so, this could be a problem for people who work as a regular cashier.

Refrences:

Jain, Rishabh. Amazon Prime Air: 5 Facts About the Compan’s Drone Delivery System. (2016, December 15) https://www.ibtimes.com/amazon-prime-air-5-facts-about-companys-drone-delivery-system-2460785

Hayes, Adam. The Unintended Consequences of Self-Driving Cars. (2019, October 31) https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/090215/unintended-consequences-selfdriving-cars.asp

BBC News. It’s a machine that many people love to hate. What will it take to improve the experience of the self-checkout? (2017, May 9) https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170509-the-unpopular-rise-of-self-checkouts-and-how-to-fix-them