Robotic apple picker

[maryjane48]

http://www.theprovince.com/business/rob ... story.html



its coming to a job near you .

[notme]

This is great news! It will replace low wage, low tax paying jobs with higher paying, higher taxed, skilled millwrights/mechanics/engineers etc.

A win/win for orchardists, tradesmen, and govornment revenues.

[lasnomadas]

I'll believe this is great news when they tell us that due to the reduced cost of using robots to pick the apples, the cost to the consumer will also be reduced.........(when pigs fly!)

[JLives]

This is great news! It will replace low wage, low tax paying jobs with higher paying, higher taxed, skilled millwrights/mechanics/engineers etc.

A win/win for orchardists, tradesmen, and govornment revenues.

Right. Because those jobs require the same skillsets. I'm sure people suited for apple picking will make super awesome engineers.

[The Green Barbarian]

Right. Because those jobs require the same skillsets. I'm sure people suited for apple picking will make super awesome engineers.

Why wouldn't they be? Why are you deliberately selling these people short?

[JLives]

People have different skillsets. That's just a fact. And the logistics don't work either. Canada hires at least 1 million fruit pickers every year. The agriculture industry is host to 1 out of every 8 jobs. We won't need 1 million skilled millwrights/mechanics/engineers etc. The vast majority will simply become unemployed. Automation is going to force us to rethink how people "earn" a living in our country. The job model is going to become obsolete in our lifetime.

[Queen K]

It already is. Look at movie ticket sales. And self-check out for groceries (I refuse to use them until there is not a single employee left at a cash register).

[notme]

Right. Because those jobs require the same skillsets. I'm sure people suited for apple picking will make super awesome engineers.

I worked an unskilled labour job for 6 years. When I realized my situation sucked (I grew up), I went back to school and got a big boy job.

Everyone has the potential to enhance their skillset. There are tons of apprenticeship programs and grants/loans to help out along the way.

Night school and low cost correspondance courses can be done while maintaining a full or part time job to pay the bills.

[JLives]

I have worked in unskilled labour jobs as well. Yes some people can and will improve their skills etc but many more can/will not. People with lower IQs for example. They do exist and they do deserve a living. They won't be entering STEM programs to do it though. Not to mention the logistical issues I brought up already. You can't replace 1 million labourers with robots and expect to have 1 million employed technical workers in return. That's not reasonable, practical nor possible.

[hobbyguy]

This an increasing trend, and it is accelerating as AI becomes more developed. The study I saw estimated that 47% of US jobs are at risk of being automated in the next 3 decades.

Bob Dylan song: The times they are a changin'

http://www.metrolyrics.com/the-times-they-are-achangin-lyrics-bob-dylan.html

Just as true today as when Bob wrote it in 1964.

[Dizzy1]

Automation replacing human labor? Is this something new? Its a good thing that people like Oliver Evans never automated flour mills 200 years ago or something like that.

[steve mc]

robots will build robots they already do. creating jobs is a whole new game the new jobs have to be paid for by gov who will have to tax the rich

[Thinktank]

Machines pick raspberries.
Machines pick tomatoes.
Machines probably pick almost every crop out there.

But what people really should be concerned about, is when big corporations go out and spray
your wheat just a few days before harvest with weed killer (Roundup) just to make the wheat
drier and easier to harvest by big machines. Now we're eating Roundup in our wheat. And no one seems to care.
Some potatos are sprayed with Roundup to allow the machine to harvest them easier by killing the vine. Then we eat the Roundup.

[Jonrox]

I'll believe this is great news when they tell us that due to the reduced cost of using robots to pick the apples, the cost to the consumer will also be reduced.........(when pigs fly!)

Why would or should the price change? You already don't care about the cost of that apple when you buy it, so why will you care what the cost of it is after the picking method changes? And I can tell you don't care what the cost is because you don't know it. The only thing you know is the price and that's what you base your buying decision on.

You currently only care about the price of the apple and that's not going to change because you still won't know or really care what the costs are.

The ag industry is facing severe labour shortages and if we don't figure out how to automate things like picking, we simply won't be able to harvest everything and then you'll see prices skyrocket as supply gets restricted on the back of strong demand.

[Keith Duhaime]

*removed*