China is awesome
In China, delivery robots now ride the subway to restock 7-Eleven stores
Submitted 8 months ago by drmoose@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
romantired@shibanu.app 8 months ago
nyan@lemmy.cafe 8 months ago
If the bots are required to have paid transit passes and if they’re confined to off-peak hours when the subways aren’t full anyway, this could actually be a net win for mass transit: they’re putting money into the system while consuming relatively few resources, so the bots can fund improvements that benefit humans.
kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Yeah. Just need to make sure that sensible restrictions are in place to prevent the creep into turning a public service into primarily a commercial one. Starts out only running during off hours, then running during active hours at a reduced rate, then it’s got dedicated cars for the robots, then it overflows into passenger cars… you see where it’s going. Best to set up guard rails before it’s a problem.
cheesorist@lemmy.world 8 months ago
This is China, not the US. They’re not as greedy and disgusting.
MaggiWuerze@feddit.org 8 months ago
I actually thought a dedicated car would be a good solution. Of course as an additional car, not as a replacement for a passenger one. Then you could optimize the interior for these robots
drmoose@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Good point. If trains are empty might as well use them.
AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 8 months ago
They look like oversized iMacs on wheeled platforms.
AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
Regardless of whether or not it’s truly happening, can you say “Dystopia”?
Regardless of what country does it, I will absolutely call every country that replaces all humans with robo workers for mundane jobs like that dystopian.
Hawk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
I’d call every society where the concept of a job still exists a dystopia.
We have the tools to start moving past that, question is how can you bridge the period in between.
Ohmmy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
I think all jobs that are able to be replaced by robots should be replaced, the dystopian factor is how capitalism deprives people of the ability to exist in doing so.
rimu@piefed.social 8 months ago
more than 1,600 robotics companies.
In one city. Christ.
AppleTea@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
industries tend to be more centralized in China. It’s not that that’s indicative of every city, more that Shenzhen already has easy access to the kind of manufacturing and products that a robotics company would find ideal.
qevlarr@lemmy.world 8 months ago
China’s government is handing out massive subsidies for everything called robotics. This causes the number of companies that claim to do robotics to be inflated
Not_mikey@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 months ago
Same here in the US with AI, but instead of the government giving subsidies its venture capitalists.
baguettefish@discuss.tchncs.de [bot] 8 months ago
the city is in key national focus for prototyping modernization and creating a smart city.
arcterus@piefed.blahaj.zone 8 months ago
Shenzhen is huge and has an absurd amount of tech companies, so this doesn't really surprise me.
RagingRobot@lemmy.world 8 months ago
It must be easy to start a business there
Aatube@kbin.melroy.org 8 months ago
new copper golems be looking plastic
drmoose@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Seems a bit of a publicity stunt as there must be a better way to do this than to drop logistics on to human subways? That being said inner city delivery bots are great idea. I’d see them all the time in Estonia a few years ago and food delivery should be entirely automated.
realitista@lemmus.org 8 months ago
No it’s “disruption”, just offload all your delivery costs onto public infrastructure and fill up the subway cars with deliveries instead of people. Profit.
drmoose@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Tbf all delivery methods use public infrastructure.
MysteriousSophon21@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Estonia’s delivery bots were a game changer - they reduced last-mile delivery costs by almost 40% in urban areas and had surprisingly good weather adaptibility, even in snow (though they did get stuck somtimes lol).
RaivoKulli@sopuli.xyz 8 months ago
Those Starship drones are cute as hell
LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world 8 months ago
Meh, I think I like the idea of 1 truck pulling up to a docking bay, them all driving out the back and hopping on the mostly empty cars in slow times that are already going to the subway platforms where the deliveries need to go. It’s either that or having to go through every subway entry point to drop them off. I think this will get flack because people are anti automation, but if it was people pushing carts to restock them manually I would still prefer them all getting in one vehicle to the subway and all getting on there and hopping off 1 at each stop. The product is all coming from one source, so why have 43 routes from place to sub station and then 43 routes back. If it is actually busy enough that it is holding up entry somewhere, having it in one location and streamlining it sounds nicer as well. It’s not like the people can bring carts through turnstyles anyways, so they are already entering through a designated entry if the 7-11’s are on the platforms. (They might not be, they could be elsewhere, but the article says downstairs).
AppleTea@lemmy.zip 8 months ago
Dozens of squat delivery robots have now begun riding subway trains across the network during off-peak hours, exiting at each station where a 7-Eleven is located to make deliveries, according to a report by local news outlet SZNews.
“In the past, delivery workers had to park above ground, unload goods, and manually push them into subway stations,” Li Yanyan, a manager at one of the 7-Eleven stores involved in the project, told SZNews. “Now, with robots, it’s much easier and more convenient.”
I think this is only for 7/11s that are part of the underground subway architecture? I don’t think the robots would be cost effective compared to a truck if this was for restocking any old corner store.
RickyRigatoni@retrolemmy.com 8 months ago
If I had the chance to ride the subway with one of these cuties it would make my day.