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Walmarts are Now Being Cleaned by Autonomous Robots
They don't take sick days, don't require health insurance and tend not to ask for raises
By Rain Noe - Dec 07, 2018
Now out of the city, I do miss writing those Urban Design Observation posts. Down here in farmland I thought about writing a rural variant, but haven't been able to get it to work yet. That's because I'm rarely off-farm, and when I am, only see things like this aisle-capping Spill Response Station at the nearest Walmart:
Enter a caption (optional)I know, it's hardly interesting enough for a blog post: It's just some cleaning product and pole-based cleaning tools for when someone drops an open bottle of Mountain Dew. Perhaps what is interesting, is that those spill response stations' days are numbered. Walmart is rolling out autonomous robot floor cleaners.
What I found most interesting, is that the rep states that the machine frees up employees to do other things. Like…apply for unemployment?
Make no mistake: Your job is less likely to be stolen by someone with a foreign name, and more likely to be stolen by something called C-127A-15X.
Go back to your factory!
Rain Noe
Rain Noe is a writer and industrial designer based in New York City.
6 Comments
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This doesn't surprise me. I work part-time at a grocery chain and operate a similar floor-cleaning machines after business hours. It is a mind-numbingly boring task and I''ve often thought how easily the machine could be programmed/ configured to do it autonomously. That being said, it does come at a cost saving to the business, but a loss of revenue and hours to employees.
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meh, fuck Walmart. but bring on the robots that do the bullshit so long as we put a book in the hand of the person who would otherwise be mopping or get him/her certified as a floor mopping robot technician. And when the robots become self-repairing and manufacturing, then we can concentrate on education, health, and leisure.
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I actually test drove one of these. They are converted by a company called Brain: https://www.braincorp.com
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I'm afraid to click the link; braincorp sounds pretty ominous.
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Wait, those will be in the aisles while people shop? So besides avoiding shopping carts and all the people in the motorized wheelchairs, now you have to watch out for a 500lb cleaning machine? Maybe they only deploy them when traffic is low.
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Lol, right?!
How long until the first lawsuit? I'm sure it's done overnight though.!Report as spam
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Continued Reading
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By Rain Noe - Dec 05, 2018
Tech Overkill: Knocking On a Refrigerator to Make It Temporarily Transparent
Can't see? Go LCD
I keep telling myself: Drama is relative. If I experience a setback at work, that doesn't compare to a coal miner's bad day at work. When my car is giving me trouble, at least I have a car to give me trouble and I don't have to hitchhike. And while
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By Rain Noe - Dec 04, 2018
NVIDIA Has Trained AI to Create Entire Virtual Worlds
Conditional generative neural networks can replace, among other things, digital set designers
With a background in industrial design, a good portfolio and some luck, you could land a job as a digital set designer for Hollywood. Their job involves, among other things, rendering cityscapes through which green-screened actors might run, fly or have car chases. But while the actors won't be replaced
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By Kickstarter Design & Tech - Dec 04, 2018
Still Confused about Cryptocurrency? This Tactile Toy Has You Covered
Pigzbe is the "piggy wallet" that gets the whole family up to speed on digital money.
"Most young children first encounter digital money in video games, where they can acquire coins to spend at will in the game environment," Filippo Yacob says. "There's no real accountability; there's no real learning. So they associate digital money with money that isn't real." But Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies
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By Rain Noe - Dec 03, 2018
Clever Contraption Makes Your Washing Machine Vibration-Free and Silent
Elmac's affordable add-on uses anti-earthquake technology to eliminate a domestic hassle
Here's a fun bit of infrastructural engineering adapted to a humble domestic application. While your home doesn't generate the seismic activity that civil engineers worry about, there is one culprit that vibrates and makes a racket: Your washing machine. Few among us have the inclination to monitor and rebalance laundry
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