...DRIVERLESS CARS INTELLIGENT MACHINES: THE JOBS ROBOTS WILL STEAL
If you are sitting at a desk, driving a taxi or carrying a hod, stop for a moment and ask: could a robot or machine do this job better?
The answer, unfortu- nately for you, is probably - yes. BBC News reports that the debate about whether machines will eliminate the need for human employment is no longer just academic. Boston Consulting Group predicts that by 2025, up to a quarter of jobs will be replaced by either smart software or robots, while a study from Oxford Universi- ty has suggested that 35 per cent of exist- ing UK jobs are at
risk of automation in the next 20 years. Office workers who do repetitive jobs such as writing reports or drawing up spreadsheets are easily replaced with software, but what other jobs are under threat? The BBC looks at some of the jobs that are already being done by machines. Taxi drivers in cities around the world are currently embroiled in rows with Uber - the app-based, on- demand service whose drivers, they argue, are subject to less regulation than conventionally li- censed drivers. But Uber, along with most of the major car
manufacturers and Google, is already looking beyond a rival service to one that gets rid of the driver altogether. As chief executive Travis Kalanick puts it - the service would be a whole lot cheap- er if you weren’t “paying for that other dude in the car”. For the moment though “the other dude in the car” is in
defiant mood.
Steve McNamara, head of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Associa- tion, told the BBC that driverless cars didn’t threaten his job.
“Autonomous vehi- cles will need primary legislation changes to operate on UK roads, the technolo- gy is in its infancy and untried and test- ed in busy urban
trialled in Coventry. Bristol, where a
environments; it ain’t happening for many a year. In reality it is doubtful if auto- nomous cars could ever work alongside conventionally driven vehicles.” Prototype driverless car tests were unveiled this new year in four British locations. They in- clude: Milton Keynes, where the Lutz Pathfinder Pod is being put through its paces by Catapult Transport Systems. Like an all-electric smart car with Union Flag livery, the two- seater is being tested on pavements, cycle- ways and paths. Pods are also being
biodiesel-powered BAE Wildcat is involved in tests with both a purpose-built simulator and on pri- vate and public roads. Its sensor gives a 360-degree view, and other tech- nologies will be permed during the experiment so that the vehicle is able to tell the difference between street furni- ture, such as a
bollard, and a child. Greenwich, where trials have begun for an autonomous Meridian shuttle. A fleet of eight electric carts is planned for operation on pre- determined route in the Greenwich and Millennium Dome neighbourhood.
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OCTOBER 2015
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