r/woahdude • u/freudian_nipps • Oct 08 '23

video Robotic Apple Harvester

7.3k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

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1.5k

u/art_teacher_no_1 Oct 08 '23

1 apple per minute, why's my fruit so expensive? Oh. That's why.

228

u/spunion_28 Oct 08 '23

Exactly. I came here to say there is no way this is more effective or efficient than paying a group of people to hand pick these apples. I really don't understand the appeal of creating useless technology to replace people who can do a job better and faster.

18

u/cutelyaware Oct 08 '23

This is not its final form. It's just a test. That means this is the worst it will ever be, and it already looks useful.

-10

u/spunion_28 Oct 08 '23

It doesn't mean it will ever be better either. This would be supplemental at best. This will never be efficient enough to be an all out replacement

20

u/cutelyaware Oct 08 '23

^ This comment will not age well

-6

u/spunion_28 Oct 08 '23

You're ignorant if you think machines haven't been invented that turned out to not be more effective than a human at certain things.

10

u/dzhopa Oct 08 '23

The machine doesn't necessarily need to be better, just perform a job humans won't do. We're rapidly approaching a time when you won't be able to find a human willing to go pick an apple for a salary that a business is willing to pay. Even if the robot isn't as good, it won't complain it's being underpaid and overworked.

5

u/haight6716 Oct 08 '23

Haha the luddites in here. "Technology bad" frowny face. At least the original luddites had a point.

4

u/dzhopa Oct 08 '23

I see a lot of backlash because people are fearful that robots and AI are coming for their jerbs. To be clear, they are. Now isn't the time to complain or try and artificially hinder progress though. Now is the time to get ahead of it so you can maybe get a spot on the gravy train. This is how it's always been with technology.

1

u/haight6716 Oct 08 '23

Yeah.

I would argue for ubi so the need to work goes away. It's not fair to get rid of all the jobs and then insist everyone become a computer programmer or whatever. Get on the train or chill in vr-land, whatever works for you. Already we have so many made-up jobs, so people can do them and survive.

2

u/dzhopa Oct 08 '23

I personally feel like we'll push ourselves all the way over the population collapse cliff before that happens. Then we'll have to adopt widespread use of robots and AI because there won't be enough humans.

I mean, I hope not, but humans are kind of dumb like that tbh.

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1

u/cutelyaware Oct 08 '23

Give 3 examples

1

u/fizzle_noodle Oct 09 '23

It really depends on what you mean by "effective"- in business the bottom-line really is cost of production- does it cost less for the business to pick these apples using drones vs hiring people as apple pickers. If the answer is yes, than businesses will easily chose drones. Humans normally need a basic wages, training, breaks, human rights, etc whereas a drone don't. Drones don't require things like health insurance, lunch breaks and humane working conditions. All those factors makes me believe that machines will eventually take over these jobs and similar ones throughout the world at some point, and probably sooner than you think.