Amazon Prepares To Test Humanoid Robots for Delivering Packages (theinformation.com)
- Reference: 0177937178
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/06/05/1728259/amazon-prepares-to-test-humanoid-robots-for-delivering-packages
- Source link: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/amazon-prepares-test-humanoid-robots-delivering-packages
[2]non-paywalled source
The Information reports. The company is building a "humanoid park" obstacle course at its San Francisco office to test robots that would ride in the back of Amazon's Rivian electric vans and deliver packages to customers, the report said. The indoor testing facility, roughly the size of a coffee shop, will house a Rivian van and serve as a controlled environment before Amazon takes the robots on "field trips" to deliver real packages on actual streets.This summer, Amazon plans to test multiple humanoid models, including a $16,000 unit from China-based Unitree that has gained popularity among robotics developers, the report said. The initiative represents Amazon's most ambitious robotics project yet, extending beyond its existing warehouse automation to tackle the significantly more complex challenge of outdoor package delivery. Amazon currently operates more than 20,000 Rivian vehicles for deliveries and plans to expand its electric fleet to 100,000 vehicles by 2030.
[1] https://www.theinformation.com/articles/amazon-prepares-test-humanoid-robots-delivering-packages
[2] https://www.theverge.com/news/680258/amazon-training-package-delivery-humanoid-robots
Amazon is creating jobs! (Score:2)
for robots
Re: Amazon is creating jobs! (Score:3)
Your positivity is admirable, but I'm afraid misplaced. Your hypothetical grandchildren will have no marketable assets or skills to justify a slice of the world's resources. Labour, creativity, ability in general are all being obsoleted. The only option in the future for individual prosperity is to be friends/family of the billionaires who own the machines that do everything. How do they justify a nice meal when they have nothing to contribute? The rich won't suddenly stop extracting wealth from everyw
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Well, that's one economic outcome, and one I would welcome, I'm not quite so confident in humanity's ability to successfully navigate that, but it would be wonderful.
I'm highly doubtful we will achieve significant space exploration. The physics have been stubbornly unforgiving on this with no workarounds in sight. We *can* do some stuff within the solar system, though the payoff is questionable. Interstellar has even more unforgiving physics and even more uncertainty. With a *massive* expenditure of ene
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> Your view of the economy is for the present, not the future. The future economy will look vastly different than it is today. Notions of supply and demand will be changed, and human kind will become solar and then interstellar explorers. The rate of innovation will skyrocket compared to what we see today, and our grandchildren will benefit the likes of which will be as foreign to us as our lives would seem to our grandparent's childhood.
I hope you're right, but greed has dominated us for as long as we've been sentient. I don't see technological change being a driver for ridding us of greed. In fact, right now it appears that technology is enabling greed on a scale never dreamt of before. I'm not sure how we steer the giant gears of change away from that trajectory, as the people driving the change are the folks who worship greed as their only true god.
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It sounds like you've been reading material similar to Iain M. Banks' novels.
Re: Amazon is creating jobs! (Score:2)
He should read the story that's actually about earth then
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> Imagine a world where for the first time in 50,000 years, peoples lives wont be dominated by learning to work
Yeah, they will be dominated by dodging the attack robots there to eliminate people without jobs.
> I think the lives of my grand children will be very interesting and wonderful
Why, are you an equity lord?
> and I am optimistic.
That can happen when you ignore all of prior human history.
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I believe it was best said by Josephus Miller in "The Expanse": "Optimism is for assholes. And Earthers."
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I vividly imagine the dystopian future where it is the "AI" of thiel, altman and musk that pulls the strings of don the buffoon (or Uhura's hubby) and decides everyone's future instead of at least a pretense of a world run by the vote of the people.
We've seen the first signs already in the US, do you like them?
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Lots aristocrats and slave owners didn't have to worry about working. Mostly were unremarkable or degenerate, though it's true some did have some accomplishments. But this is more like the first time people won't be able to work, and hunting, gathering, and subsistence farming are largely out of reach. A never ending economic depression. If they're lucky like the Irish there will be someplace your grand kids can emigrate to instead of starving.
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> I think the lives of my grand children will be very interesting and wonderful, and I am optimistic.
As long as they're the ones who own the robots.
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Your local homeless shelter shows what that will be like.
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FYI: in the meantime, you and your children still have to figure out how to pay the bills.
Testing? (Score:2)
Before taking these things out into the real world, they need to do some proper outdoor testing, perhaps by renting out one of the "towns" the military and police use for urban training. Testing needs to include "adversarial encounters," because that what's going to happen when they face real people.
And do it somewhere in the north-east, in winter.
It always amazes me that tech-bro's can call something - like autonomous vehicles - fully tested when it's only been run in So-Cal, Nevada and Arizona.
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China is already training theirs: [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mtv_f2JllI
Real World Scenarios? (Score:1)
Can it figure out that I didn't shovel my driveway in the winter, and there's 3 feet of snow, and the robot will get stuck?
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It'll have a flame thrower to melt the snow.
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> It'll have a flame thrower to melt the snow.
They're hired!
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> It'll have a flame thrower to melt the snow.
There was a fun video from xckd last week: [1]What if you used a flamethrower as a snowblower? [youtu.be]. Spoiler: it's better to move it than melt it. But the flame thrower would win on entertainment value.
[1] https://youtu.be/WYf9-xfm6t8?si=jDgPfq-3li1odZ0z
Master control switch (Score:2)
Hmmm... I don't know... an army of Chinese robots roaming the US. Kinda makes me nervous.
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That's probably a better outcome than an army of US robots roaming the US with the way things are going over here.
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May's Rasmussen poll: "In 20 years, the % of people who say the US is headed in the Right Direction has never been higher than today."
Dumb idea (Score:2)
What you really want is a dog-like robot with package grippers on its back, and one arm for doorknobs and elevator buttons - something like a Boston Dynamics bot.
Four legs - stable without balancing, so longer battery life.
Low profile - delivery vans could have more than one, in dog-house slots
Can't be mistaken for a human - give it a few cute dog-like mannerisms
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> What you really want is a dog-like robot with package grippers on its back, and one arm for doorknobs and elevator buttons - something like a Boston
> ...
> give it a few cute dog-like mannerisms
Dog-like mannerisms paired with an extra, human-like arm and package grippers doesn't sound like it could ever be "cute".
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> What you really want is a dog-like robot with package grippers on its back, and one arm for doorknobs and elevator buttons - something like a Boston Dynamics bot.
> Four legs - stable without balancing, so longer battery life.
> Low profile - delivery vans could have more than one, in dog-house slots
> Can't be mistaken for a human - give it a few cute dog-like mannerisms
Stop it, you're turning me on.
I saw this movie before, it doesn't end well. (Score:1)
This story reminds me of the opening scene from I, Robot : [1]https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Robots out in an uncontrolled environment is not likely to be accepted by the public until the technology is advanced enough to prevent harm to people and property. It's hard enough to make a computer that can keep an airplane flying on a safe path when there's nothing but open sky. When a robot is on wheels, such as a self driving car, and on a smooth and well marked path, like a highway, there's incidents of prope
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1QGCiFcrCQ&t=150s
It's okay (Score:2)
We're all going to be HVAC welding plumbers. They'll be plenty of people to hire us and our bodies won't break down around the age of 55 with 22 years left to go before we can even pretend to retire.
Absolutely nothing about your life needs to change from the time you were 12. Just keep telling yourself that over and over and over again.
We take the mask off aaand ... (Score:2)
... 5,000 Indians pretending to be robots.
Not even original guys : https://it.slashdot.org/story/25/06/03/1954225/ai-startup-revealed-to-be-700-indian-employees-pretending-to-be-chatbots
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> ... 5,000 Indians pretending to be robots.
5,000 Indians controlling 100,000 robots, though, would represent a huge cost savings in this case.
First, you wouldn't have to hire in the local market, so the labor would be cheaper. The median salary in India is about $350 per month. California's minimum wage (assuming four 40-hour workweeks) is $2,640 per month. So that's almost an order-of-magnitude reduction in cost by itself.
Second, at least half of a delivery person's time is spent in a vehicle going from place to place, and in low-density area
Here we go again! (Score:2)
> Amazon is developing software for humanoid robots that could eventually replace hundreds of thousands of delivery workers...
It's kind of disturbing to contemplate the rate at which AI and automation are replacing humans. Which, for the umpteenth time, prompts the question "Who's going to be buying all the products these corporations produce when a large percentage of the population is jobless?"
> Amazon plans to test multiple humanoid models, including a $16,000 unit from China-based Unitree...
Unless the chip design and the programming for these robots are done in the US, mightn't this just give the Chinese a big kill switch on a substantial chunk of US logistics infrastructure? Not to mention a whole lot of intelligence-gatheri
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Yep, and yep. Somewhere around 1.2 million workers in warehouse and delivery depend on Amazon for a living, at least partially. Instead of millions of jobs, you'll have a few thousand robot maintenance workers at the most. And those jobs will probably suck, require lots of unpredictable travel and not pay well.
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If you want to worry, read this:
[1]https://ai-2027.com/ [ai-2027.com]
then try to figure out whether we're following that timeline.
[1] https://ai-2027.com/
Another Possible Result (Score:2)
This reminds me of the Hitchbot experiment.
The robot was able to make it across Canada, the Netherlands, and Germany, but it met its end in Philadelphia.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HitchBOT [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HitchBOT
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Its fate is described as "stripped, dismembered, and decapitated". It's lucky that it didn't get as far as Trenton, where its fate would have been worse.
Can they tell the weather? (Score:2)
Will the robots know not to leave packages out in the rain like my last Amazon driver? About 2% of them will put the package in a plastic bag, which is nice, but they are in the minority.
Isn't this the stupidest part to optimize? (Score:2)
Of all the steps in an Amazon purchase, why optimize this one? Humanoid robots are slow, heavy, and terrible in unpredictable environments. Humans are far quicker and more agile and durable. How's this unitree going to handle rain, mud, snow, etc....and then how much money are you really going to save?
I really don't see how this will benefit them. So the robot will no doubt be slower than a human delivery person...but you could have many on a truck...the only problem is that they'll take a ton of spa
What could possibly go wrong? (Score:2)
> The company is building a "humanoid park" obstacle course at its San Francisco office to test robots that would ride in the back of Amazon's Rivian electric vans and deliver packages to customers.
Just a few quickie questions:
How will you know for sure that it's an android, and therefore okay to kill or rape it?
How will you know that it's okay to do that to androids?
What happens when the nightly mind-wipe doesn't exactly take, and the robots start remembering? At first in strange dreams. Later with more cla
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So *that* is why the government wants to ban Tik-Tok.
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Presumably there would be a driver
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I suppose it's intended as a funny FP thread but I don't feel like laughing. What if the robot is delivering a bomb? Or has "self-defense" capabilities even in the absence of any "self".
In solution terms I want some kind of robot repellent or electronic fence to make sure no one can send me any package from Amazon. I decided decades ago that if Amazon is selling it, then I don't want it. Especially not if it's an exclusive offer and part of the evil monopoly under development.
Sometimes freedom isn't free. O
Re: I doubt they will survive my hood (Score:2)
The kids are alright!
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As they should.
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Do you really think kids would do that, when they find out it's a sure path to jail time? Remember when people thought it would be fun to key Teslas? That ended quickly when people started being charged with terrorism and facing 40 years in jail.
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I, for one, think kids will do whatever
Discipline your kids (Score:2)
Parental spanking by ** level-headed ** parents for stuff like this is a societal good.
Better that spanking than spanking by prison cellmates.
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So last week. I imagine from today forward until musk falls on his knees, those kids are going to get medals. How things change. And now musk is saying he is decommissioning dragon. Popcorn.
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> Remember when people thought it would be fun to key Teslas?
Yes, I remember when it was a hobby in some republican ghettos almost 10 years ago.
> That ended quickly when people started being charged with terrorism and facing 40 years in jail.
This is something about those early episodes that you totally made up.
The coal-rolling rednecks stopped keying the swasticars, when it became apparent that they are also Stasi cars and take video of you all the time.
But what else would you expect from the audience that voted for don de felon except doing dumb shit and getting caught?
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Jail. Those kids must like going to jail since those robots are surrounded by cameras. Remember when you guys said robot axis will never work due to vandalism? Well, Waymo completed over 10 millionth ride and is set to do 20 million by end of this year. Oh and btw, people who keyed Tesla's and were caught on camera doing so were being charged with terrorism and facing 40 years in jail .. no plea deals. If they vandalize robots, you can bet Amazon will go to Trump and ask them to treat it similar.
Re: I doubt they will survive my hood (Score:3)
Im not aware of anyone that keyed a tesla and got any serious charge. I am aware of people who set fire to teslas getting arson charges. The Trump administration tried to spook people protesting and blocking tesla dealerships by threatening domestic terrorism charges, but of course nothing came of that because its fucking ridiculous and a transparently corrupt abuse of power meant to try and save the buisnesses of a high profile ally.
If we start seeing mass job displacement from AI and robotics come too qui
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> The Trump administration tried to spook people protesting and blocking tesla dealerships by threatening domestic terrorism charges, but of course nothing came of that
T rump
A lways
C hickens
O ut!
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Lamest opposition ever.
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Tangential knee jerk thought regarding Waymo.
What happens when Amazon creates their own driverless vehicle (or joins forces with Waymo). You now have driverless vehicles with robots capable of bringing the packages to your location, and they replace a large part of the delivery people with people who handle "rescue" scenarios....
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I'm pretty sure that vandalism is still illegal, even if the object being vandalized is owned by a big bad corporation and it's billionaire overlord.