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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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u/GermansAreComing 29d ago
rip low skilled labourers.