McDonalds Starts Rolling Out Automated Kiosks.

[ElFenix]

the mcdonalds on I10 on the south side of beaumont had kiosk ordering 15 years ago when we were coming back from mardi gras. haven't seen them since.

i think they got rid of the kiosks because back then they probably confused everyone. now that everyone is used to tapping on screens all the time a rollout would meet less resistance, i assume.

 

[HumblePie]

I'm thinking in another 20 years there will basically be no need for unskilled labor in the work force. I imagine the Republican hope is that these people not smart enough for highly technical positions recognize their inherent obsolescence in the economy and kindly die in a gutter with minimal fuss.

You are bonkers if you think that. Luddites thought that a hundred years ago too. Menial labor positions will always exist so long as there is something menial that someone doesn't want to do. The types of menial labor jobs will change as they always do. Few hundred years ago there were no cashier jobs period. Now there are. Maybe in the future there won't be. In the end the menial jobs will change into something else.

 

[Sonikku]

In the end the menial jobs will change into something that can be automated by a machine.

 

[HumblePie]

In the end the menial jobs will change into something that can be automated by a machine.

Not everything that can be automated is worth automating. But if it makes you feel better just shout out DOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!1

 

[JSt0rm]

Not everything that can be automated is worth automating. But if it makes you feel better just shout out DOOOOOMMMMM!!!!!1

Examples?

 

[Mai72]

Back in October Budweiser had their first beer delivery via driverless truck. The driver was in the truck to oversee any issues which there were none. The video is on YT.

Another video on YT that I like is called "Humans Need Not Apply." The video is about automation and the effects it is having on the job market. Current and in the future. It's a good video.

IMO, automaton is going to put pressure on the people who don't have the skills to compete in this new economy. The highly skilled are going to be fine. Or, the people who work for the government. Teachers, police officers, firemen. Get a job that can't be automated or acquire the skillset so you can be more valuable in the marketplace.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Anything that can be automated profitably will be automated.

FTFY

Maybe McDonald's was looking at doing this now anyway, but it's possible that they looked into it years ago and shelved the idea because it didn't make financial sense at $7.25 an hour. The math changes a lot when employees suddenly get twice as expensive with no bump in productivity.

 

[boomerang]

Robotic bricklayer.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/fastbrick-robotics-bricklayer-robot-hadrian-x/

 

[K1052]

Maybe McDonald's was looking at doing this now anyway, but it's possible that they looked into it years ago and shelved the idea because it didn't make financial sense at $7.25 an hour. The math changes a lot when employees suddenly get twice as expensive with no bump in productivity.

I attribute this more to cultural changes at the corporate level than anything. The new CEO is making a lot of breaks with the past and slimming down the company at the top levels while encouraging innovation. They're even abandoning their suburban corporate campus in Oak Brook, which nobody ever thought they would do, and moving into the city to recruit the next generation of talent (tech heavy) for the business.

 

[agent00f]

You are bonkers if you think that. Luddites thought that a hundred years ago too. Menial labor positions will always exist so long as there is something menial that someone doesn't want to do. The types of menial labor jobs will change as they always do. Few hundred years ago there were no cashier jobs period. Now there are. Maybe in the future there won't be. In the end the menial jobs will change into something else.

More smart automation tech has happened in the last few gen than all of human history combined.

 

[theeedude]

Silicon Valley is working to automate all jobs like this. Then everyone will be spending their food stamps at McDonalds kiosks.

 

[Sonikku]

Except you can't use food stamps at McDonalds so McDonalds' smugness is probably going to backfire in a big way when a big chunk of their clientele no longer has money for their product.

 

[Triloby]

It's not hard to imagine that a lot of blue-collar and menial jobs will be automated within the next decade or so. Sure, we will still need human labor for the time being when it comes to certain jobs like truck drivers, fast food/restaurant workers, and a few others. But now, we've already advanced to the point where people are already doubting the importance of human labor, as a concept, in the future. The funniest thing is, this was all bound to happen anyway even if we didn't have a minimum wage increase. Forcing a minimum wage increase on the federal level would've only hastened automation even faster.

Even white-collar workers aren't safe from automation. Jobs requiring data entry or working with statistics, numbers, and even decision making will eventually be automated as well.

The thing is, despite what automation is capable of doing, we should actually be embracing it; not trying to destroy or get rid of it. The more you fight technology, the more you're going to lose in the future.

 

[nickqt]

Silicon Valley is working to automate all jobs like this. Then everyone will be spending their food stamps at McDonalds kiosks.

Carl's Junior: Fuck You, I'm Eating!

 

[Blue_Max]

No shit. And there's no way maintaining a kiosk costs $7.25 an hour. These kiosks were always coming as technology allowed it. This belief that businesses are pushing that it is solely the result of people pushing for a higher wage are basically using the protests as a smoke screen for doing what they were always going to do as the circumstances allowed.

Pretty much this. I mean, self-checkouts at the grocery stores have been around what... 6-10 years now? I'm almost surprised fast food places have held out as long as they have... probably because their customers expect a "free smiles" cashier to take their order. The wage increase may not be the sole cause, but it's one nail in the coffin that was already being built.

 

[Sonikku]

It's not hard to imagine that a lot of blue-collar and menial jobs will be automated within the next decade or so. Sure, we will still need human labor for the time being when it comes to certain jobs like truck drivers, fast food/restaurant workers, and a few others. But now, we've already advanced to the point where people are already doubting the importance of human labor, as a concept, in the future. The funniest thing is, this was all bound to happen anyway even if we didn't have a minimum wage increase. Forcing a minimum wage increase on the federal level would've only hastened automation even faster.

Even white-collar workers aren't safe from automation. Jobs requiring data entry or working with statistics, numbers, and even decision making will eventually be automated as well.

The thing is, despite what automation is capable of doing, we should actually be embracing it; not trying to destroy or get rid of it. The more you fight technology, the more you're going to lose in the future.

This. If this technological revolution is the future one way or the other and hiking minimum wage hastens it then so much the better. The way our economy works a hundred years from now may be different from the way it has always worked in the past and the sooner that transition is done the better.

 

[agent00f]

This. If this technological revolution is the future one way or the other and hiking minimum wage hastens it then so much the better. The way our economy works a hundred years from now may be different from the way it has always worked in the past and the sooner that transition is done the better.

The comedy here is the flyover bumpkins were willfully unprepared for this eventuality ("leftist colleges, hurr durr"), so their only viable strategy is to drag everyone else down because they have no future.

Funny when you think of yourself as John Galt, the time will come when that self-proclamation is tested.

 

[ivwshane]

I always have mixed feelings about these. I do think the minimum wage needs to go up, and that this is classic "screw you workers" material. At the same time, though, I wouldn't want to insist on keeping crummy, thankless jobs with few career opportunities. Ideally, we'd create jobs in more meaningful spaces that give people a chance to move up.

Yeah but who is this "we"?

In my opinion I think everyone is looking at the problem from the wrong angle. How do we create more good paying jobs? The solution was actually provided to us decades ago and yet it never came to fruition. Automation is already here and it will continue to eat up jobs and more and more people will either have to work multiple jobs or spend more time in school in hopes that their education will be a ticket out from the bottom of the barrel jobs, only to be competing for less and less available jobs.
I think the solution is a simple one and yet one that's almost foreign to Americans...working less.

What's considered full time needs to be lowered and weekends need to be lengthened. Humans should be benefiting from automation not suffering from it. All of this should be done while pay remains the same. This will create more jobs (to deal with less coverage) and it will stimulate the economy which will cover the increased costs of labor. The further automation encroaches the less we should be working.

 

[michal1980]

I'm thinking in another 20 years there will basically be no need for unskilled labor in the work force. I imagine the Republican hope is that these people not smart enough for highly technical positions recognize their inherent obsolescence in the economy and kindly die in a gutter with minimal fuss.

Well you are a screwed up person.

 

[michal1980]

the mcdonalds on I10 on the south side of beaumont had kiosk ordering 15 years ago when we were coming back from mardi gras. haven't seen them since.

i think they got rid of the kiosks because back then they probably confused everyone. now that everyone is used to tapping on screens all the time a rollout would meet less resistance, i assume.

I think the future of Kiosks is them being powered by things like Alexa/Siri/Ok Google. Where they are good enough to fully understand speech in that environment it will be easier for tons of people to interact them rather then clicking on menus. For example the soda machines that have 100 choices - thats great, but they take so long, and require so many touches. It would be much nice to walk up and say diet cherry coke, rather then find the coke button, then select diet, then click the cherry flavor.

 

[ch33zw1z]

the stuff is barely food.

Yet consumed by the masses in gluttonous quantities.

 

[ch33zw1z]

It's not hard to imagine that a lot of blue-collar and menial jobs will be automated within the next decade or so. Sure, we will still need human labor for the time being when it comes to certain jobs like truck drivers, fast food/restaurant workers, and a few others. But now, we've already advanced to the point where people are already doubting the importance of human labor, as a concept, in the future. The funniest thing is, this was all bound to happen anyway even if we didn't have a minimum wage increase. Forcing a minimum wage increase on the federal level would've only hastened automation even faster.

Even white-collar workers aren't safe from automation. Jobs requiring data entry or working with statistics, numbers, and even decision making will eventually be automated as well.

The thing is, despite what automation is capable of doing, we should actually be embracing it; not trying to destroy or get rid of it. The more you fight technology, the more you're going to lose in the future.

Even truck drivers will be a thing of the past. There's already car makers testing automated nagivation.

What's going to be left here is repairs. Repairing trucks, repairing automated fast food devices, repairing those white collar stealing computers.

 

[brycejones]

Examples?

If you can get some schmuck to take $10 an hour to do the job and machine to do it costs $500K...you pay the schmuck.

 

[cytg111]

Even truck drivers will be a thing of the past. There's already car makers testing automated nagivation.

What's going to be left here is repairs. Repairing trucks, repairing automated fast food devices, repairing those white collar stealing computers.

There is a reason behind netherlands move

http://www.theatlantic.com/business...cht-universal-basic-income-experiment/487883/

It aint socialism it just a sign of the times. In a society where most tasks are automated how will you distribute the wealth? There is some basic concepts we need to rethink in our societies.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I definitely agree, my post was about the impending effects of automation, and what jobs will be left over.