The robots are going to steal my job!

Tesla has their Optimus robot coming out soon, I put in an order for 10 of them to try out so I could see if they replace drivers.

So I think if they work out in the pilot program that many fleets are talking about, then the driver's shortage is gone for good.

I heard WE, Prime, and Snider has 300 each on order, they are not going to even test them, they are just going to replace drivers because these three companies can't get any worst and they know that a robot in the driver's seat may be less accident prone than a super trucker they seem to hire.





ROBOTS RULE!!

 

That is kinda creepy. Almost Maximum Overdrive style creepy. Woulda been over the top if it started talking to you and asked you “Do you want to play a game?”

 

I saw one of those in a Walmart in Crossett Arkansas. Kind of freaked me out. Also in a restaurant recently there was a robot cruising around taking people their food. Maybe in time we won’t have anyone to tip anymore at restaurants.

 

Sometimes it seems as though everyone’s working for a computer. Always waiting on the system. Warehouses, Government, even fast food. The apps that don’t allow any real contact to anyone in charge. It’s frustrating. Who’s benefiting? Often it’s convenient, saves time and hassle. Till there’s a problem. No one’s responsible. It’s the system’s fault. I can’t believe how much this has affected everything. Yesterday at a local warehouse, I heard they’re losing their contract. New Company is changing everything. Tried to get the name
of the company. Maybe apply. No one knows. Some German or French Company. They don’t even know who Owns the Company now. Meanwhile they sit around staring at their phones. Connected to the whole world, no connection to one another or their own current situation. No idea if they’ll even have a job in two weeks. Probably hoping to draw unemployment all winter and play video games. I don’t get it. I remember walking into a place and getting hired on the spot. Work that day. Now I have to fill out an app online. I call directly and get told the position has been filled. I doubt it ever existed.

 

The Europeans are actually pretty far a head of the US in this area. For now, they have done some limited open road testing. Currently it seems to be a test then study the results cycle. A slow and methodical process.

The port of Rotterdam has a full autonomous system up and running. It has evolved over the last 4/5 years from a basic system of moving containers to and from the ship and to and from a staging location.
Road trucks would bring or take the containers from that point.
The system has expanded its capabilities. Some of the containers are going directly to local off port facilities. The infrastructure that has been installed, cameras, sensors, antennas, networked and open communication systems, plus large amounts of mapping data, gps programming plus constant monitoring of every vehicle on the facility. The system works, works very well. The one thing about this port operation, it is a closed environment. Every thing is a known functionality. Little to no outside interference. Someone running a stop light, or just changing a lane 23 feet in front of the truck, does not happen.
The system works in this scenario, and could actually be a good thing. Ports could run 24/7. Ships loaded/unloaded all by automation. Little to no human interaction for probably up to 97% of the time. The rare times an exception comes up, then people would need to get involved, fix the issue and move on.
Been kind of interesting watching this project when it started planning back in 2016 or 17.

 

Techies make the world work...as well as guys/gals that can bump the dock with the doors open.

The future of old school O/OPs will be be yard dog positions at 75$/hr, bumping 13 docks an hour. Go home everynight and tell your wife how it used to be done.

Hell, good forklift guys make 35$ an hour now, and they don't have to drive

 

Not everyday you see someone get hit where the landing gear are lol. Even the worst usually swing wide enough to at least hit em with the tandems.

 

They had better figure out what to do with the 10 million illegals that are supposed to take over all the truck driving jobs.

 

My brother was involved in this project from the IBM side before he retired in '20. Very demanding from an IT perspective and uptime perspective. A lot of the tech was proven in the baggage handling system at Schiphol Airport.

Lots of redundancies in the system to keep things rolling. Which also is it's biggest weak spot: operators get lackadaisical about fixing failures because the system works around them. Until there's so many ignored failures the whole thing goes to crap.....