Will lawn care businesses be replaced by robots in the near future?

[juliebells81]

@juliussneezer So you are super scared of advances in robotics and AI. Okay. How would you change anything? What specifically do you think needs to happen that would end up being a greater net positive for society than the status quo of industries facing disruption from ai and robots.

The concept of univeral basic income can literally only exist with labor from robots and AI. No other way it works.

 

[tamirem]

@juliussneezer Why not learn to fix robots?

 

[ecign8]

@juliussneezer I look into the robots of the future more than your average person. Honestly I don't think UBI will come way too late, and when it does it will be way too little.

Look at 3rd world countries, they have no problem having the rich and the literal slums.

My city is growing with homeless, the homeless and tent populations are just exploding. And the city is constantly trying to hire people to clear out homeless camps. And robotics and mass layoffs haven't even come close to ramping up to where they can be in just a few short years. I really feel like we're damn close to the brink of robotics just exploding. Lots of people bury their head in the sand on this issue and think things will be fine, just like climate change deniers.

 

[juliebells81]

@juliussneezer Lol its called creative destruction and its absolutely critical for our society to move forward. Jobs becoming obsolete a vast majority of the time is a net positive to society in the long run. Sucks in the short term for the individual workers however it’s unavoidable and people are capable of adapting.

 

[pilgrimheart]

@kaynic Highly unlikely for the next few decades, and even then a question mark. Landscapers are both creative and manual workers. They can also guide you on decision-making (e.g., what investments to make, how to do regular upkeep yourself etc.). That's too many things to automate. The manual work part alone would be so complicated for a machine to do, the investment in robotics would likely not have nearly as much of a return for whoever builds robots vs. other use cases (e.g., manufacturing, healthcare). It's only when robotics gets MUCH cheaper that landscaping can be an attractive ROI for robotics companies.

 

[inmatetalks]

@kaynic I own 2 Robotic mowers and love them! They aren't able to do all areas of my yard so I still have to do a bit of push mowing and of course edging.

Neither one is super smart and 1 can be printer-level frustrating at times. I know this is not helping you feel better but I would highly recommend them to people whose yard it would work with

 

[paulus59]

@kaynic I predict that lawn care professionals who embrace and integrate this kind of tech into their business operations will do well. Instead of fearing it, leverage it. Make it a competitive advantage. Can it make your work faster? More accurate? Cheaper? More interesting? Let robots do the monotonous row mowing while you edge the perimeter, and work as a team, etc.

 

[derek1933]

@kaynic Yes. There are many on the way. Electric Sheep, Scythe, Graze and others.