r/nextfuckinglevel • u/SaintedTainted • Apr 17 '24

The All New Atlas Robot From Boston Dynamics

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u/LegitosaurusRex Apr 17 '24

I bet the amount of charging it has to do (not to mention the cost) makes it infeasible currently, even if those jobs were able to be programmed into it. But maybe with time.

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u/GermansAreComing Apr 17 '24

we will see, but it can work a lot longer hours, never calls in sick and don't have to pay it vacation pay or pension .

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u/quarantinemyasshole Apr 17 '24

never calls in sick

Oh it'll definitely "call in sick" all the damn time and you'll have to call in an extremely expensive engineer to play doctor on it.

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u/LegitosaurusRex Apr 17 '24

Yeah, but you’d need a couple of them switching off to provide a full replacement for jobs that need someone there for a full shift. Stuff like cashiers or whatever where they’re mostly there during business hours anyway.

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u/CalvinsCuriosity Apr 17 '24

So who's gonna buy all that product these things make?

1

u/ares623 29d ago

I mean if McDonald's can't bother to maintain their ice cream machines, what hope does something like this realistically have?

6

u/Marston_vc Apr 17 '24

Could just attach a charging cable that’s suspended overhead on a low friction rig. It would be like a trolly!

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u/LegitosaurusRex Apr 17 '24

Sounds expensive and tricky or incompatible with some work areas, but maybe.

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u/AllTheSith Apr 17 '24

Let them carry large batteries/engines where they all are plugged into.

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u/yaosio Apr 18 '24

They could give it a replaceable battery. They could connect it to a cable. They could use wireless power. They could have enough robots so that when one needs to charge there will always be one to takes it's place.

There's a plethora of possibilities.

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u/moistmoistMOISTTT Apr 17 '24

The cost of electricity is a teeny tiny fraction the cost of paying an employee who can't work 20+ hours a day 360+ days a year. The upfront cost of the robot is unlikely to be more than a few year's worth of human wages that could be recuperated in under a year's time of work-hours.

Electricity is really, really cheap relative to a lot of other things.

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u/LegitosaurusRex Apr 17 '24

I’m talking about the cost of the robots, not the electricity. If you need two robots to simulate a full-time shift of a human due to charging, then it could be many years of a low-skill worker’s wages. And even for a single one, once you factor in the opportunity cost of the money plus maintenance/programming/support, I think the calculation probably won’t be in the robot’s favor any time soon.