Don't let this fool you, soon enough the left will start demanding a "living wage" for the robots too.
Yesterday on NPR, I heard a McDonalds' franchisee talking about how difficult it is to keep to short wait times, because the menu has become complex. It's not a far stretch at all to imagine that all of the prep work in fast food could be moved over to machines. Think of how Ebay has automated their warehousing. Adapt that to a fast food environment. There would be little left for people to do. I wonder what will be left for people to do?
So the Rigthwing solution, when robots start to work at McDonalds will be... "Stop paying humans and they'll get to keep the job"???
More like "let's not significantly raise the cost of labor so employers will have less motivation to look to automation". Bill Gates agrees, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/03/18/1285753/-Bill-Gates-Robots-are-inevitably-going-to-take-your-job-so-don-t-raise-the-minimum-wage
Automation will be coming for much more than just burger flippers. If your job only requires ordinary skills, I.E. something anyone can do with a little training, it will likely be a target. Just wait until driverless car tech makes truck drivers obsolete, along with any other job transporting a physical object.
The solution is to allow labor and employer to negotiate terms on their own. Do you need someone to tell you what you're willing to accept in payment for labor?
China also puts plastic in it's rice to inflate the amount of rice it has. I doubt any ethical nation should be taking tips from them. http://disinfo.com/2011/02/china-produces-rice-made-from-plastic/
after the 1st case of tin whiskers kills a bus full of kids, there will be a sudden demand for truck drivers again...or it snows. Google's system needs to see the roadway.
Like anything else dealing with the tech industry there will be a need to maintain, repair, and create these machines.
Here in Dayton Ohio, home of Motoman, makers of robotic solutions, they value their own employees, saying, "Your Road to Success Begins At Yaskawa Motoman Our People and Culture. We consider our employees the cornerstone of our business and recognize they are the heart of Yaskawa Motoman's success." Companies like this will be working hard to replace lazy liberal workers everywhere. http://www.motoman.com/about/employment.php And on the other side of town, Wright State has an advanced level robotics course. Pretty kick ass. The best part, robots don't unionize or whine about living wage. They shut up and do their job, showing up on time with a great attitude.
Robots are already better at driving in certain conditions than we are, and the more AI-controlled vehicles on the road, the safer driving becomes. They have the advantage of far superior vision, and instant communication with every other AI vehicle on the road. Logistics professions are arguably *the* prime target for future automation.
Not likely anytime soon on trucks, planes could be automated but people want pilots on the plane just in case, and trucks that move hazardous materials would likely have to have human drivers. Many companies might also want drivers for costly cargos which includes quite a few areas to at least be on board. As for the restaurant above what if a foreigner comes in who doesn't speak much or any Chinese, if they take orders in that language, they would still need a human being to meet such needs.
Brewskier, how much would you have to pay a human....to compete with a robot who gets no pay? - - - Updated - - - Same question....how much would the employer have to pay a human....to make it as competitive as having a robot he pays nothing?
It's amazing to me how you seem to miss the point, every time. Almost like you're doing it on purpose.
So what happens when robots replace the complex work as well? Pretty soon you'll have robots fixing other robots. Google is working on a system that can program itself http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2813303/Google-reveals-developing-computer-smart-program-ITSELF.html sure it's a ways off, but you start automating the lower end jobs, those at the top will realize how much money is saved and start looking further up the chain.
It's the reality of the times, unfortunately. Look at 3D printing. That in and of itself can cause the demise of thousands of small and large businesses. A possibly lucrative market will exist for sales of 3D printing schematics, I guess. We're all doomed.
I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case for late hour operations. Good out of the box thinking on that issue.
Was on the local news just last night that McD's is getting ready to roll out "touch screen ordering menus" to allow users to order their burgers how they want them. Burger King has their "Have it your way", and McD's is following suit, with the exception of letting the customer pick it all by pushing buttons instead of telling the teenager behind the microphone. Already have this touch menu at Sheetz, Get-Go and the various food making convenience/gas stations for a while now. Next step is easy....customer presses buttons, machine produces the food, quickly...and most importantly...accurately.
Which requires education and more than borderline consciousness....we already have a lot of people getting educated. This is about the no-skill types...what are THEY going to do?
People fail to realize that we're already using small-scale, limited AI type assistance in our driving...like, traction control, automatic 4-wheel drive engage, torque routing, anti-lock/skid braking, ride control, adaptive cruise control (the one that automatically slows when a vehicle is in front of you), automatic braking when in reverse, etc. Of course those are aimed at assisting the human driver to stay on the road and not kill someone. The biggest issue facing the current self-drive tech is building a self contained unit capable of navigating our current road infrastructure. If we are willing to spend the money, we could upgrade infrastructure to assist the self-drive vehicles and we could realize their use sooner, I believe. A totally self contained unit capable of using any road as it is today is incredibly complex. If we were to modify the road infrastructure, say add some sort of signaling/sensor devices along our roads (be it embedded in the road, or installed on the road side) we might be able to field working self-drive vehicles sooner. I could see long stretches of highway being set up for this and you could drive normally on side streets, then engage "auto-cruise" once you hit the modified roadway. A self contained unit is the ultimate prize, but using modified roadways, even if limited would be a good start. It would help to change the current driving culture into accepting automated driving. It would provide a real world working model to build on and provide a safer environment on busy stretches of major highways.