Automation – American Conservative Movement https://americanconservativemovement.com American exceptionalism isn't dead. It just needs to be embraced. Tue, 05 Mar 2024 11:10:41 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://americanconservativemovement.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/cropped-America-First-Favicon-32x32.png Automation – American Conservative Movement https://americanconservativemovement.com 32 32 135597105 Several Truck Companies Plan to Completely Eliminate the Use of Human Drivers This Year https://americanconservativemovement.com/several-truck-companies-plan-to-completely-eliminate-the-use-of-human-drivers-this-year/ https://americanconservativemovement.com/several-truck-companies-plan-to-completely-eliminate-the-use-of-human-drivers-this-year/#comments Tue, 05 Mar 2024 11:10:41 +0000 https://americanconservativemovement.com/?p=201633 (Natural News)—Three startup firms have announced plans to eliminate all human drivers and replace them with driverless trucks traversing through Texas highways by the end of 2024. The move comes amid objections from critics who warn that financial pressures, not safety, are behind the proposed timetable.

After years of testing, Aurora Innovation Inc., Kodiak Robotics Inc. and Gatik AI Inc. claim that they are ready to get rid of safety drivers of trucks being guided by software and different sensors including cameras, radar and lidar, which send pulses of light that bounce off objects.

The three startups have already hauled cargo for big companies such as FedEx, Kroger, Tyson Foods and Walmart.

In an interview, Chris Urmson, co-founder and chief executive officer of Aurora, said by the end of 2024, the company is slated to reach the point where it starts “operating those trucks without drivers on board.”

Mountain View, California-based startup Gatik AI has already driven trucks without a human driver in Arkansas and Canada. In an interview, Gautam Narang, Gatik’s co-founder and CEO, explained that the company uses smaller, box trucks and plans to deliver from distribution centers to stores. In 2024, the startup expects to deploy driverless trucks in the Dallas area “at scale,” added Narang.

Meanwhile, Kodiak CEO Don Burnette, said the company plans to “start small in 2024 and gradually ramp it up as we build confidence in the system that we didn’t miss anything.” Burnette added that Kodiak is aware of “the damage that can be done,” like the case of robotaxis in San Francisco.

Kodiak’s first operations without a human driver include short runs near the company’s truck terminal near Dallas and extend from there, added Burnette.

The three startups will be supported by truckport partners who will help with refueling their diesel-powered fleets and will offer roadside assistance in case of a flat tire.

Amid the various accidents linked to autonomous vehicles, the startups said the risk is worth it since the technology can allegedly help “improve highway safety and lower transportation costs.” (Related: California DMV SUSPENDS Cruise’s driverless car permits for misrepresenting information on safety.)

However, critics said these companies have an incentive to reduce the losses that investors have been financing during the delicate development and testing phase.

Driverless trucks lack regulation, transparency and comprehensive data collection

Cathy Chase, president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, explained that they are worried about the lack of regulation, transparency and comprehensive data collection.

Critics have also warned that trucks pose severe dangers because they often travel at highway speeds and weigh as much as 80,000 pounds. This is more than 15 times as much as General Motors’ controversial Cruise driverless robotaxi.

For now, the federal government has left regulation of driverless large trucks mostly up to states, which resulted in a confusing patchwork of rules. California suspended Cruise operations in October after several reported incidents in San Francisco.

California’s absence of rules for allowing trucks to be tested on public roads encouraged the three driverless truck startups and others to target Texas for testing and deployment.

The problems that Cruise’s robotaxis faced on the streets of San Francisco, such as unpredictable pedestrians and sudden road closures, aren’t a major hurdle for driverless trucks, claimed the three companies.

Trucks usually transport cargo on fixed routes, usually on highways that require much less interaction with passenger vehicles and pedestrians.

Aside from saving money on trucker salaries, autonomous trucks can travel longer than the 11-hour limit enforced on human drivers.

Autonomous trucks also have sensors that scan in all directions several times a second to identify objects, which allegedly speeds up reaction time. The companies also said there are estimated savings on emissions of 10 percent or more because the vehicles will “stay just below the speed limit and travel at a steady cadence.”

According to statistics compiled by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), 5,700 large trucks weighing 10,001 pounds or more were involved in fatal crashes in 2021. The majority of those incidents were from trucks with a gross weight of 33,001 pounds or more. These Class 8 trucks are almost as big as those used in Aurora and Kodiak’s fleets.

Driverless trucks are not immune to road accidents

While driverless trucks haven’t had any at-fault incidents with other vehicles in testing with safety drivers, the FMCSA report suggests that they’re not completely accident-proof.

At least two-thirds of fatal accidents occur when a person, object, animal or other vehicle veers into a truck’s lane. Data collected by a self-driving truck’s computer system is essential to determining what caused an accident.

Brian Ossenbeck, a transportation industry analyst with JPMorgan Chase, warned that the companies planning to go driverless in 2024 can’t just claim that they are “better than humans.” He added that they must first “reach that superhuman level, at least initially, until there’s broader acceptance. And who knows how long that would take.”

If things go as planned, safety drivers, whose hands usually hover above the wheel without touching it while the truck is in transit, will no longer be needed by 2024.

Urmson said the company plans for things to feel like a normal day, but with their trucks transporting cargo without human drivers. Watch the video below as driverless trucks are being tested on public roads.

This video is from the ZGoldenReport channel on Brighteon.com.

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]]> https://americanconservativemovement.com/several-truck-companies-plan-to-completely-eliminate-the-use-of-human-drivers-this-year/feed/ 8 201633 Amazon Prepares Army of 750,000 Robots to Eliminate Human Workers https://americanconservativemovement.com/amazon-prepares-army-of-750000-robots-to-eliminate-human-workers/ https://americanconservativemovement.com/amazon-prepares-army-of-750000-robots-to-eliminate-human-workers/#comments Tue, 31 Oct 2023 04:39:49 +0000 https://americanconservativemovement.com/?p=198029 (Natural News)—Amazon recently announced that it has “750,000 robots working collaboratively” with human employees. The company introduced two new robotic systems to speed up its deliveries, raising concerns among fulfillment center workers that the e-commerce giant might eventually reduce or totally replace its human workforce.

In a blog post on Oct. 18, Amazon revealed that its robotics team has begun testing “Digit,” a bipedal robot that has started carrying around and stacking boxes at a site south of Seattle.

The company explained that Digit “can move, grasp, and handle items in spaces and corners of warehouses in novel ways.” Additionally, the robot’s size and shape are suited for buildings that are designed for humans, with Amazon saying that “there is a big opportunity to scale a mobile manipulator solution” like Digit that can work collaboratively with employees.

Digit will also assist human workers with tote recycling, a “highly repetitive process” that involves picking up and moving empty totes once inventory has been completely picked out of them.

For the past 10 years, Amazon has tried and tested “hundreds of thousands of robotics systems while also creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs” within its operations.

This includes 700 categories of new job types in skilled roles, which didn’t exist within Amazon before. The company also claimed that equipping workers “with new technology and training them to develop new skills” can help create career paths and “new and exciting ways for people to contribute” to the company.’

Aside from Digit, Amazon also unveiled Sequoia, a new robotic system that was designed to help fulfill customer orders faster. The company is already using Sequoia at a Texas fulfillment center. (Related: Workers in warehouses could soon lose their jobs to HUMANOID ROBOTS.)

The Sequoia system was designed to “delight customers with greater speed and increased accuracy for delivery estimates.” It will also help improve employee safety at the company’s facilities.

Sequoia will also help workers identify and store inventory the company receives at fulfillment centers up to 75 percent faster than it currently does.

The new system will also help reduce the time it takes to process an order through a fulfillment center by at least 25 percent, which improves shipping predictability and increases the number of goods Amazon “can offer for same-day or next-day shipping.”

AI could expose 300 million full-time jobs to automation worldwide

Amazon said ensuring robotics are collaborative is key to how the company designs or deploys systems like Sequoia and Digit.

The question is now whether this robot workforce will help the immense workload of Amazon employees or if this is the first step in supplanting the jobs of hundreds or even thousands of people.

Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, suggested earlier this year that using data on occupational tasks in both the U.S. and Europe has revealed that at least two-thirds of current jobs are exposed to some degree of artificial intelligence-powered automation. The data also showed that generative AI could substitute up to one-fourth of current work.

Extrapolating these estimates globally, it’s possible that generative AI could expose the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs to automation, with at least two-thirds of occupations “partially automated by AI.”

Go to Robotics.news for more updates on companies trying to replace all human workers with AI and robotics. Watch the video below for more on a big climate stress test for Amazon sellers and suppliers.

This video is from the Thisisjohnwilliams channel on Brighteon.com.

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]]> https://americanconservativemovement.com/amazon-prepares-army-of-750000-robots-to-eliminate-human-workers/feed/ 3 198029 ROBOCROPPERS: John Deere Planning to Replace Farmers With Fully Automated Farming Vehicles by 2030 https://americanconservativemovement.com/robocroppers-john-deere-planning-to-replace-farmers-with-fully-automated-farming-vehicles-by-2030/ https://americanconservativemovement.com/robocroppers-john-deere-planning-to-replace-farmers-with-fully-automated-farming-vehicles-by-2030/#comments Fri, 07 Oct 2022 15:22:34 +0000 https://americanconservativemovement.com/?p=182668 Agricultural machinery company John Deere is planning to manufacture nothing but fully automated farming vehicles by 2030.

Jorge Heraud, vice president of automation and autonomy for John Deere, noted that he sees the company’s future as being a leader in the manufacturing of robotics and artificial intelligence-infused equipment alongside the tech giants of Silicon Valley. (Related: Warehouses turning to robots to fill labor gaps as e-commerce booms.)

John Deere showcased a glimpse of its future line of automated farming machinery last January when it unveiled its fully autonomous 8R farm tractor, driven by an AI rather than a farmer behind the wheel.

According to Heraud, the 8R is the culmination of Deere’s investments in automation, data analytics, GPS guidance, internet-of-things connectivity and software engineering. All of this research and development is a mix of homegrown research as well as the result of acquisitions and partnerships with agri-tech startups.

“This comes from our realization that technology is going to drive value creation and increase productivity, profitability and sustainability for farmers,” said Heraud. “The AI we use involves computer vision and machine learning.”

The science behind this technology was developed by Silicon Valley startup Blue River Technology, which John Deere acquired in 2017 for $305 million. The company’s “see and spray” robotics platform utilizes dozens of sophisticated cameras and processors to distinguish between crop plants and weeds when applying herbicides.

To help the 8R distinguish between weeds and crops are six pairs of stereo cameras that can “see” obstacles in the field like rocks, logs or people. These cameras can also determine the size of the obstacle and how far away it is from the tractor. The cameras then pass the images along through a deep neural network that analyzes the pictures and decides whether the tractor should stop or keep moving.

“We’ve curated hundreds of thousands of images from different farm locations and under various weather and lighting conditions,” said Heraud. “With machine learning, the tractor can understand what it’s seeing and react accordingly. This capability also allows the farmer, instead of being in the tractor, to operate it remotely while doing something else.”

John Deere purchasing startups that can bolster its agri-tech R&D

Stephen Volkmann equity research analyst at Jefferies, noted that while John Deere is making a big splash in automation, it is “very, very, very early in this process.”

He noted that the total global fleet of autonomous tractors the company has now “is less than 50.” The company’s plan is to have a fully autonomous farming system for row crops by 2030. “In Wall Street time, that’s an eternity,” said Volkmann.

For the time being, Volkmann noted that John Deere is creating value and profits for its well-established automated systems that can be installed onto its existing, manually-driven tractors, such as GPS-based self-steering and precision seeding.

While this is happening, John Deere is engaging in an aggressive expansion campaign by purchasing startups that could help further the company’s agri-tech research and development.

8R’s autonomous driving capabilities were initially developed by Bear Flag Robotics, a Silicon Valley startup launched in 2017. It was then purchased by John Deere for $250 million.

Bear Flag Robotics’ autonomous navigation system was used for 8R and can be retrofitted onto existing tractors to help farmers navigate.

In April, John Deere formed a joint venture with GUSS Automation, a tech company that devises semi-autonomous orchard and vineyard sprayers. The company’s tech can detect trees and their sizes and determine how much to spray.

A month later, John Deere acquired numerous patents and other intellectual property from AI startup Light. The company has a depth-perception platform that can improve upon existing stereo-vision systems with the help of additional cameras. John Deere plans to integrate Light’s platform into future versions of its autonomous farm vehicles.

To keep a close eye on other developments in the field of agri-tech John Deere has also established a “Startup Collaborator” program to test innovative technologies.

“The hope is that they find the diamonds before they become obvious to John Deere’s competitors and keep them in the fold,” said Volkmann.

Learn more about automation and artificial intelligence at Robotics.news.

Watch this video from Stefan Molyneux asking if automation leads to economic collapse.

This video is from the Stefan Molyneux channel on Brighteon.com.

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]]> https://americanconservativemovement.com/robocroppers-john-deere-planning-to-replace-farmers-with-fully-automated-farming-vehicles-by-2030/feed/ 1 182668 Robots Replacing Shelf Stockers in Japanese Convenience Store Chain https://americanconservativemovement.com/robots-replacing-shelf-stockers-in-japanese-convenience-store-chain/ https://americanconservativemovement.com/robots-replacing-shelf-stockers-in-japanese-convenience-store-chain/#respond Sat, 13 Aug 2022 20:56:34 +0000 https://americanconservativemovement.com/?p=178393 Robots are set to replace human workers as shelf stockers in a Japanese convenience store chain.

Convenience store company FamilyMart collaborated with Tokyo-based Telexistence to deploy these robots called TX Selective Compliance Assembly Robot Arm (TX SCARA) in 300 locations across the country. The robot arms designed to replenish drinks in refrigerators are now in mass production, according to the technology firm.

“TX SCARA was created to do the specific task of restocking refrigerated shelves with bottles and cans – a repetitive, tedious job generally performed by employees in often uncomfortable settings,” Telexistence said in an Aug. 10 statement.

“TX SCARA operates 24/7, replenishing shelves to completely remove the task from store staff. The introduction of robots and its AI system will create time surplus without adding employees, and the time can be reallocated to customer service and shop floor enhancement, leading to higher quality work environment and store operations.”

The robots can work without human assistance 98 percent of the time, with a remote piloting option available in case the artificial intelligence fails or encounters out-of-place items. Each TX SCARA unit can replace one to three hours of daily work by humans in every store where it is deployed. Telexistence said the deployment of the robots served a two-fold purpose: Help relieve store workers and fill a void left by Japan’s shrinking workforce.

“The decline in Japan’s labor population is one of the key management issues for FamilyMart to continue stable store operations,” said the company’s general manager Tomohiro Kano. He added that the newly created time as a result of adopting TX SCARA “can be reallocated to customer service and shop floor enhancement.”

FamilyMart, which has 16,000 convenience stores in its home country, will pay Telexistence a monthly fee for the robot stocker’s labor and maintenance. The fee will also include the support of remote workers who can pilot the TX SCARA unit using a virtual reality headset when needed.

Robots also replacing human cooks in fast food chains

The trend of robots replacing human workers is not limited to Japan. In fact, restaurants in the U.S. have followed the practice. Layoffs prompted by the pandemic and the inability to fill these job vacancies prompted several companies to turn to robots instead. (Related: Restaurants look to ROBOTS to fill openings amid labor shortage.)

Fast food chain White Castle was among the companies who jumped on the bandwagon, with its robotic fry cook named Flippy. The robot arm – who mans the fry station in the joint’s No. 42 branch in Merrillville, Indiana – worked 23 hours a day, with an hour reserved for cleaning and maintenance. Flippy’s main tasks involve handling fries, cheese sticks, onion rings and other side items.

According to Jamie Richardson, White Castle’s vice president of corporate relations, Flippy was not just a gimmick to attract more diners. Its dedicated tasks gave its human colleagues more time to focus on customers.

“If you know you’ve got the fryer covered, it frees you up to have the right person taking orders in the dining room or the drive-thru,” he said.

Mexican fast food chain Del Taco followed suit with a machine that fills customers’ drink orders. According to Del Taco’s Vice President for Operations Innovation Kevin Pope, the machine seeks to automatically prepare a diner’s chosen drink – shaving seconds off the time needed to fulfill every order.

The machine takes a cup, fills it with ice and pours in the appropriate beverage afterward. It then covers the cup with a lid and delivers the finished drink at the end of a conveyor belt. Human crew members would only have to grab the drink instead of making it themselves.

Robots.news has more stories about robots replacing human workers.

Watch this video about a restaurant in Japan staffed by robots.

This video is from the Vigilent Citizen channel on Brighteon.com.

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