automation

12 Stories

Automation Comes to Farming. Not Everyone Is Thrilled

Technology has the potential to cut costs, alleviate backbreaking labor, but it's got some worried

(Newser) - Jeremy Ford hates wasting water. As a mist of rain sprinkled the fields around him in Homestead, Florida, Ford bemoaned how expensive running a fossil fuel-powered irrigation system on his 5-acre farm was—and how bad it was for the planet. Earlier this month, Ford installed an automated underground system...

Even Retailers Are Fed Up With Self-Checkout

Automated kiosks double theft rates, among other issues

(Newser) - Self-checkout machines aren't only annoying customers, Quartz reports, as a growing number of large retailers have begun rethinking the costly tech. Last year, companies like Target, Walmart, Dollar General, and British grocer Booths have pared down (and in some cases eliminated) how the automated systems work in their chains,...

Meet the Robots That Will Be Making Our Food

Chains such as Sweetgreen are turning to automation to cut costs and speed up service

(Newser) - The new workers at restaurant chains like Sweetgreen require an entirely different type of employee training, and definitely won't fit in the typical uniforms. The company is going fully in on automating their salad prep, the Wall Street Journal reports, and while depending on machines to handle soft and...

Truckers Exist Under Watchful Eyes in a 'Keg of Dynamite'

Automation, poor work conditions have turned industry into 'dystopian nightmare,' per 'NYT' op-ed

(Newser) - The trucker convoys that overtook Canadian and American cities , led by drivers upset about vaccine mandates and COVID restrictions, may have seemed to emerge out of nowhere. Not to actual truckers, though, who tell Robin Kaiser-Schatzlein that such requirements were simply the "straw that broke the camel's back"...

Elon Musk's Humanoid Bots Are Headed Our Way

Prototype for the 'Tesla Bot' is due out 'sometime next year,' says CEO

(Newser) - Will Elon Musk soon have his own Westworld-style theme park ? Things probably won't get that far, but you can't blame the thought from arising after an announcement this week from the Tesla CEO. That reveal, made at Thursday's AI Day in California, per CNBC : The company...

Number of US Occupations Automated Since 1950: 1

Pour one out for our lost elevator operators

(Newser) - While there's a lot of worry about robots replacing American workers, a paper by Harvard economist James Bessen found automation has made humans obsolete in just one job over the past 67 years. Of 270 occupations listed in the 1950 US Census, only elevator operator no longer exists due...

Robot Farm to Churn Out 30K Heads of Lettuce a Day

Our automated overlords will be up and running by next year

(Newser) - "Robot-obsessed Japan" is how Phys.org describes a country bent on automation, and its latest agricultural efforts seem to back that claim up. The world's first robot-run farm will be up and running by mid-2017, Kyoto-based Spread has announced, and it plans to churn out 30,000 heads...

Your Pilot May Not Remember How to Fly a Plane

Feds warn about skills fading away as automation takes over

(Newser) - Where's Ted Striker when you need him? Probably not at the helm of a commercial flight, according to a new Department of Transportation report . It finds that automation has driven manual flying mostly out of the cockpit, leading to concerns that pilots may not be getting enough training to...

Get Humans Out of the Cockpit
 Get Humans Out of the Cockpit 
OPINION
Jul 10, 2013 1:55 PM CDT

Get Humans Out of the Cockpit

Holman Jenkins thinks transportation ought to be automated

(Newser) - When a highly automated train crashed into a Quebec town last weekend, its conductor was not on board . Which raises a few questions, writes Holman Jenkins at the Wall Street Journal . Why couldn't the train tell headquarters it had taken off? Why couldn't headquarters stop it from afar?...

2012's Forgotten Issue: Stagnant Income
 2012's Forgotten Issue: 
 Stagnant Income 
analysis
Oct 24, 2012 11:52 AM CDT

2012's Forgotten Issue: Stagnant Income

Candidates largely ignore causes of decade-long income slump

(Newser) - The economy has taken center stage in the race for the White House, but amid the chatter about government spending and taxes, the New York Times thinks one subject that hits close to home for many poor and middle-class Americans has been largely left out: the long-term stagnation of income....

Behold: a Self-Making Bed
 Behold: a Self-Making Bed 
Jun 9, 2012 11:22 AM CDT

Behold: a Self-Making Bed

But it looks like you have to be a relatively neat sleeper

(Newser) - A Spanish furniture company has what it says is the world's first self-making bed. Hit a button, and rollers pull up the cover while cords raise and straighten the pillows, explains the DVice blog . It's done in under a minute. Alas, it's not clear how OHEA's...

Autopilot Safety Under Scrutiny

(Newser) - One minute Qantas Flight 72 was cruising at a level altitude, autopilot humming. Then suddenly, for no apparent reason, the Airbus A320 went into a nosedive, as the pilots helplessly watched. Eventually, they righted the plane, but not before 115 passengers were injured. Nor was this an isolated incident. Automated...

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