13 November 2012, by Raymond Wong (BGR)bgr.com/
Foxconn announced in August last year that it was planning to have 1 million robots up and running in its factories within three years.
As promised, the first batch of 10,000 “Foxbots” have already made an appearance in one Chinese factory, with 20,000 more planned by the end of the year.
The Foxconn-built Foxbots are estimated to cost between $20,000 and $25,000, but reportedly aren’t good for anything beyond repetitive tasks that involve item “lifting, selecting and placement.”
The mechanical arm-like Foxbots are likely not capable of producing products such as the iPhone 5 that require extremely intricate assembly.
With 1.2 million employees, and 1 million robots planned, the big question is how many workers will actually be put out of work?
After all, Foxconn will still need people to oil up the Foxbots if they ever malfunction.
Robots will never replace human beings until they can be persuaded to buy the latest fashions on credit.
ReplyDelete1. the value of labor is further depressed by new technologies, even in newly exploited labor markets!
ReplyDelete2. where is the promise of a better world with all our marvels?
3. being able to find live location based coupons on my iphone is a sad use of so much human effort and labor which will be made obsolete at a predetermined point in the future in order to maximize profits, and the wheels keep on turning.
4. Until goods are once again built and designed to last our lifetimes we will continue to see cheaper and cheaper crap being built for less and less.
5. i have no solutions to the problems of the world today, but i can tell you it isn't anything the leaders of the world are considering, they are making rich just fine with the way things are going.