WALMART Announces 360 Robot Janitors, How Well The GOP Tax Scam Is Creating Jobs?

[appalachiablue]

Common Dreams, Dec. 3. 'See How Well the GOP Tax Scam Is Creating Jobs? Walmart Announces Plans for 360 Robot Janitors.' The company still faces calls to raise its minimum hourly pay, but machines don't ask for a living wage. Andrea Germanos.

Walmart announced Monday it will have 360 floor-cleaning robots in its stores by the end of January.

In a joint statement with developer Brain Corp, the retail giant said a Walmart worker would first ride the Zamboni-like machine to teach it the route; after that a push of the button would allow machine to take off on the route by itself.

"You see what happens when you all keep complaining about a living wage!?" commented one social media user. Another tweeted sarcastically, "Looks like Trump's corporate tax cuts are helping create jobs and increase wages!"



- The Auto-C, powered by BrainOS, joins Walmart's technology ecosystem.

As Bloomberg reported: Walmart has already been experimenting with automating the scanning of shelves for out-of-stock items and hauling products from storage for online orders. Advances in computer vision are also making it possible to use retail floor data to better understand consumer behavior, improve inventory tracking and even do away with checkout counters, as Amazon.com Inc. is trying to do with its cashierless stores. Brain's robots are equipped with an array of sensors that let them to gather and upload data.

Walmart continues to face calls to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour, and the recently-introduced "Stop Walmart Act" aims to pressure the company to do so.

"If Walmart can find $20 billion for stock buybacks to further enrich the Waltons, it can find the money to raise the pay of its workers to a living wage," said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif), who introduced the measure in the House. "It's time to put workers over wealthy corporations—across our nation, one company at a time."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/12/03/see-how-well-gop-tax-scam-creating-jobs-walmart-announces-plans-360-robot-janitors

[appalachiablue]

1. Video, Robot Janitors Are Moving Into Walmart

[marble falls]

2. Let them sell their crap to robots, too.

[appalachiablue]

3. The way things are going, it may come to that with the vast

number of low-wage human workers struggling just to buy necessities. The hellbent dystopia is coming.

[marble falls]

4. Can you imagine each citizen having a robot to do all poductive life, including earning wages ...

purchasing etc.

[appalachiablue]

5. That I can't fathom, what will humans do- vegitate, be 'pets?

Bizarre world future.

[marble falls]

6. Its possible. We would be giving robots 'purpose. We own tools - why not robots? People ised to ...

rent out mules and still rent out other humans, why not rent out personal robots.

[appalachiablue]

7. Good for human owners with $.

[FSogol]

8. It has a seat. Wonder if I could stand on the seat and travel around the store proclaiming "Bow

before your robotic betters, you peasants"?

[appalachiablue]

11. That would be a blast to see. Please don't run into any customers

especially kids or older people if you try it-- remember the Uber accident in AZ.

[FSogol]

12. I wanna get run over by one. I've heard the Walton family is quite rich.

Sadly, I go to Walmart about once every 15 years. They'll have nano-tech janitors by then.

[appalachiablue]

13. Funny and I get your point. Not a regular shoppping choice

either or a fan of big box, anti union stores.

[pm_me_grey_paint]

9. Like most Walmart "innovations"...

...I doubt it'll last beyond a few months testing. All it'll take is a few scam artists to setup and fake an injury caused by that thing (or it actually hits either a kid or elderly person since no machine is perfect) and they'll quietly go away.

The same for the machine scanning shelves for out of stock items. I've worked retail, their machine isn't going to account for the fact that stockers under time pressure will plug holes in shelves with incorrect products to fill the space to make management get off their backs.

[appalachiablue]

10. Thanks for the comments, we'll see how it goes Re any collisions,

stocking and other functions of Walmart's new 'janitors.' After the recent Uber self-driving vehicle pedestrian death in Arizona, I hope the company is very careful operating that machine when humans, esp. vulnerable children and elderly are in stores as you say.