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The CEO of Boston Dynamics says a robot workforce has nothing to fear
Boston Dynamics CEO says more warehouse operators are considering a robot workforce after COVID-19 exposed health vulnerabilities to logistics centers. His comments come when Amazon (AMZN) warns it could run out of workers by 2024. “They have almost 100% turnover in logistics jobs such as picking up and packing boxes,” Robert Playter told Yahoo Finance Canada at the Collision technology conference in Toronto. “We have definitely seen it [with] our industrial or warehouse customers [that] Interest in robotics has only increased during the pandemic. ”Boston Dynamics has shown that its“ Stretch ”robot is smart enough to react to a pile of boxes that suddenly falls and clean up the mess. The company plans to launch a new robot every three or five years with the goal of mastering a new job, but Playter says the key is that Boston Dynamics looks for the sweet spot between what the job market needs and what they are able to do. “The next robot, which we hope will come out in a few years, will probably go in the direction of more skilled handling tasks, perhaps in a manufacturing environment,” he said. Hyundai Motor Company (HYMTF) acquired an 80 percent stake.Playter says the new majority owner will help market its robots with its experience in large-scale manufacturing. “They will help us create these things more efficiently. and to reduce the cost “, v to say. “By the end of this year, we’ll have about 1,000 robots with customers. So we’re seeing a lot of interest.” Asked if robots will expel human labor from warehouses, he said, “I think a lot of manual labor will be done by robots. But robots are still not as smart as humans and you have to deal with unexpected circumstances. “. Playter says it envisions a “path to improving skills” for workers to become robot operators. “The robot, its intelligence, handles many of the complexities. You just give it high-level commands on what to do, point it in one direction or set a route. And autonomously it will do this job on its own.” , he said. “You won’t need a college degree to operate them.” Jeff Lagerquist is a senior journalist at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow him on Twitter @jefflagerquist. Download the Yahoo Finance app, available for Apple and Android.