Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs?

Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by pukexxr on Saturday June 25, 2022 @09:13PM (#31880147)

Touchscreens have replaced lots of human jobs. Self checkouts have replaced lots of human jobs. I worked in one of the very first grocery stores to have a self checkout added. They told us it wouldnt affect our jobs. If you go into any grocery store in the country you will see ~25% staffing compared to the late 90s/early 2000s. If you are askibg this question you are just too young to have noticed, or perhaps of a social standing that you just don't notice the people who are being swept aside by automation.

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Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by chadcmulligan on Saturday June 25, 2022 @09:18PM (#31880167)

But they're not robots - they've just outsourced the checkout job to the customer and made it so they require minimal training. Technology has made this easier, but it's not robotics.

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Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by HermanMartinus on Saturday June 25, 2022 @09:55PM (#31880373)

It depends on how you define “robotics”. It’s physical technology that has displaced workers, even if it doesn’t have mechanical arms.

That being said, I think the robots that have taken peoples jobs are generally in warehouses and manufacturing and hidden away from the public eye. Think Amazon fulfilment centres, or auto manufacturers. There are a lot of robotics at play there replacing a lot of people.

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Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by samemail88 on Saturday June 25, 2022 @09:44PM (#31880317)

Yes, I agree. All these kiosks and self checkout machines aren't what I think of when I think robots/automation. More like automating the job to the customer. Its equivalent of saying the software writing has been automated but in reality, its been outsourced to folks to India.

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Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by lupire on Sunday June 26, 2022 @10:40AM (#31884437)

There are too kinds of automatic: logic automation to replace worker training, and physical automation to replace worker movement.

Self checkout is logic automation, making the checkout job easy enough that customer can be trusted to do it.

Checkout used to have two jobs: a checker and a customer standing around waiting. Self-checkout merged those two jobs into one.

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Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by Teever on Sunday June 26, 2022 @10:54AM (#31884549)

Three jobs in many instances actually. The bag boy would put the products into bags and possibly walk it out to your car.

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Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by mdrzn on Sunday June 26, 2022 @12:41PM (#31885468)

This is a US-only thing as far as I know.

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Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by tough on Sunday June 26, 2022 @04:22PM (#31887577)

Mexico has those too

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Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by easytiger on Sunday June 26, 2022 @04:07AM (#31882024)

That's just turning the screen around and making the customer do the same thing as the employee based off the fact that CCTV systems will work with people's decency so as to not steal. It's not automation, the same actions still occur.

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Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by flakyfilibuster on Monday June 27, 2022 @05:22AM (#31892268)

are ... we going to be replaced by robots?!

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Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by lupire on Sunday June 26, 2022 @10:41AM (#31884447)

That only works because of the previous success in semi automating checkout, and scaling up the efficiency of security via CCTV.

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Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by easytiger on Monday June 27, 2022 @08:15AM (#31893459)

Checkouts weren't previously automated, they were digitised. The reporting of data was no longer a manual process so you could argue the backoffice tasks were automated.

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Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by moomoo11 on Sunday June 26, 2022 @11:41PM (#31890354)

I went to the grocery store a few weeks ago for the first time in like 3 years (been using delivery) and I was surprised that everyone in line was an instacart shopper.

It was pretty surreal. I used to enjoy going to the grocery store with my parents as a child.

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Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by midhhhthrow on Saturday June 25, 2022 @10:17PM (#31880491)

They just made their customers do the work for them

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Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by anothernewdude on Sunday June 26, 2022 @01:03AM (#31881240)

Conversely there are people who pick the shelves, and drive vans to deliver groceries.

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Re:Ask HN: What happened to robots taking all our jobs? by isbvhodnvemrwvn on Sunday June 26, 2022 @06:19AM (#31882586)

I think online shopping has also taken a bite of that traffic.

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