The Massive Automated Robotics Revolution
It doesn’t seem like there is a job under the sun that is safe from robotic automation. Whether it’s call center workers, fast food employees, writers, radiologists, the world’s top legal minds, and everyone in between, the coming wave of super robots will displace millions of workers and require governments to tax businesses so that “living wages” can be paid out to unemployed people. So far, the inevitable result of the rise of robots has been workers downscaling and having the option of lower paying jobs rather than upscaling and earning more.
The difficult issue is that truck drivers earn middle-class wages making them more expensive than robots as employees. Also, truck drivers depend on a large number of “non-truck driving” support staff and trucking companies, truck stops, gas stations, and more.
Doing More With Less
The question is, will there be a backlash against the “robotization” of so many middle-class jobs? The world’s top experts in robotics argue that has happened in every giant technological step forward, as in the transition from agriculture to manufacturing, old jobs will give way to new jobs that will be equally as fulfilling and magnitudes of order more productive than jobs left behind.
Many in the automated vehicle industry argue that automated cars will get rid of a large number of traffic accidents and deaths caused by bad, drunk or drowsy drivers. But one wonders if the continued loss of jobs due to automation and robotics will lead to political candidates like Donald Trump who seem to prey on the fears of large numbers of the population being displaced by an economic system that is passing them over.
Two books covering this subject are Jerry Caplan’s “Humans Need Not Apply” and Martin Ford’s “Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future.”
The following video from the Automated Truck Conference explains how automation is set to transform trucking.
David enjoys writing about high technology and its potential to make life better for all who inhabit planet earth.
