Robots To Replace Migrant Fruit Pickers 409
Vicissidude sends us to Wired for a look at a fruit-harvesting robot being developed in California. Its development has been funded entirely by agricultural associations, concerned by the uncertainty surrounding migrant immigrant labor. Quoting: "As if the debate over immigration and guest worker programs wasn't complicated enough, now a couple of robots are rolling into the middle of it. Vision Robotics, a San Diego company, is working on a pair of robots that would trundle through orchards plucking oranges, apples or other fruit from the trees. In a few years, troops of these machines could perform the tedious and labor-intensive task of fruit picking that currently employs thousands of migrant workers each season."
Really? (Score:5, Funny)
Is it more than about $3 an hour, including maintenance?
And do they reproduce themselves?
Cuz, you've got some strong competition there.
Re:Really? (Score:5, Funny)
This is 2007. Your robophobia will not be tolerated.
well we already (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/search?keyword=
Que!?!?! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Really? (Score:1, Funny)
Comrades!! (Score:0, Funny)
Government Funding (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Really? (Score:1, Funny)
I don''t like to think of Planet Express as a business! I like to think of it more as a source of cheap labor, like a family!
It will never work (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Mechanization is the future (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Long overdue (Score:1, Funny)
All we need now are robots which can claim benefits and commit crime!
Re:It will never work (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Really? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:MOD PARENT UP (Score:3, Funny)
Funny. There's more people here who speak European languages than North American languages. Odd how the Constitution isn't written in Iroquois.