
Teamsters Tell UPS: No Drones or Driverless Trucks - poster123
https://www.wsj.com/articles/teamsters-tell-ups-no-drones-or-driverless-trucks-1516795200
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natosaichek
Buggy whip makers tell buggy mfgs "No motors, no batteries, no gasoline"

Seriously, do the teamsters not realize that if they cripple UPS's ability to
compete that they'll just all be out of a job suddenly when UPS gets destroyed
in the market? They need to figure out how humans can actually add value
relative to the other options and implement those changes. They need to figure
out how to long-term keep humans relevant to the delivery industry. These
sorts of short-term hacks by the parasite will just kill the host.

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tabtab
Re: _" Seriously, do the teamsters not realize that if they cripple UPS's
ability to compete..."_

If and when competitors have it and start hurting UPS's business, the
teamsters may relax the request. What UPS should do is make sure the contract
allows them to still do R&D and small-scale trials. If and when a competitor
comes along that is a serious threat to UPS's business, the teamsters will
probably relax the production-based automation clauses.

It's a compromise I think both sides would agree to. After all, they don't
want to kill the hand that feeds them. The only actual thing UPS is
sacrificing is being first-to-market with such automation. Just be ready to be
2nd.

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andrewjl
You're assuming that the coordination costs and timescales of such a Teamsters
/ UPS agreement match the timescale of such a disruptive innovation arriving
and putting UPS out of business. Historically that assumption is inaccurate.

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natosaichek
Here's an article on the same topic but with no login required.

[https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/24/labor-teamsters-want-to-
ban-...](https://www.cnbc.com/2018/01/24/labor-teamsters-want-to-ban-ups-from-
using-drones-driverless-vehicles.html)

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mc32
Unless they get congress to pass a law to prevent shoppers from shipping via
autonomous or drone vehicles all they will do is drive their company into the
ground and themselves out of a job.

That said, companies do need to look at the morality of automating jobs away.
Is there a social contract between companies and the population they serve? In
a world where new jobs replaced old, the contract remained intact, in some
form, but if now it's outright elimination without adding transformed jobs,
there will likely be a breakdown.

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blackrock
The future of delivery will be robotic.

1\. A robot arm using cameras, sensors, and a AI neural network, will unload a
truck, and put it on the conveyor belt.

2\. Then the same AI robot arm will load a truck.

I predict that in the future, a delivery guy will drive his van to your
neighborhood, where he will have 5 deliveries to make. He will drive to the
center of all the customers. Then, 5 robotic dogs, will take the package to
each of the 5 customers.

The robotic dog will scan the customer, get a face recognition for
authorization, and a confirmation for hand-off.

Meanwhile, the delivery guy is sitting in his car twittling his thumbs,
waiting for the robotic dogs to come back. Ten minutes later, the robotic dogs
come back, they charge back up in their docking stations, and the driver goes
off to his next destination.

The delivery guy will only be used to deliver extra bulky items, that the
robotic dogs cannot yet handle. But future robotic dogs will be able to handle
all kinds of bulky packages.

In 15 minutes, 5 packages got delivered. At a rate of 3 minutes a package.
This is incredible, and it will allow UPS to increase their package delivery
throughput.

Or, the driver will just drive closer to each of the customers. The robotic
dog will deliver the package, while he drives to the next customer on the
list. And when all packages are delivered on that route, then he'll come back
and pick up each robotic dog, as they sit there waiting.

If the unions stop UPS from automating, then they're going to kill themselves.
Another company will take over, and their robotic fleet will put UPS out of
business.

They'll call themselves, the Robo Delivery Express (RDX).

And for some other scenarios, drones are going to start aerial delivery. These
are more practical for suburban houses with a large front yard. You will need
at least a 10x10 sqft area for aerial drone delivery. A mid-sized drone will
fly to your house, and hover over the delivery point.

You will use your smartphone to authorize the hand-off. The drone gets the
authorization to proceed. Cameras using an AI neural network, will scan the
area to confirm safety, before initiating the delivery sequence, to make sure
all is clear. Then a winch will wind down and gently put the package on the
ground. Wind back up, take a last visual scan to make sure all is well, and
then fly away.

The future is robotic. It is inevitable.

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EpicEng
Why in the world would you need a nueral net to unload/load a truck?

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DannyBee
Forklift driving? (I'm just spitballing)

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EpicEng
OP was talking about a robotic arm to load/unload boxes onto a conveyor belt

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noetic_techy
I'm all for capitalism and efficiency, but there really needs to be a more
robust system to relocate and re-educate people who are displaced like this.
Whether it be automation or any industry disruption in general. Massive tax
breaks if you need to relocate or retrain maybe. Access to free-ish or maybe
even subsidized education due to layoff. We need to make the human side of the
equation in any job easier to flow from one region of the US to another.

I say this, but in the long term we should also be discussing what a "post-
work" economy looks like when the machines ultimately take over everything and
there is nowhere left to run...

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jacob019
There will never be a post work economy. If machines drive down the cost of
labor then perhaps we will see rising inequality, but lower labor costs would
put some machines out of business. From what I've observed though technology
has made the world a much better place for all mankind. Some may be hurt on
short timescales and we should work to improve that.

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aryehof
Supposedly automation is innevitable, in order to maximize efficiency and
profits.

However there is a cost, and long term it will be the ability to provide
increasingly huge numbers of people with a job that can provide a reasonable
standard of living, along with bread on the table and a roof over their heads.

At some point the huge majority "without", will act to regulate out of control
change and enterprise which is not to their benefit, or that of their
children. Revolution is not just a quaint concept limited to the past.

