Giant Cargo Drones
- Thread starter RDoug
- Start date
ppragman
FLIPY FLAPS!
Why would you need to automate a ship when you could just use $3/day Bangladeshis? The ship is flagged in Panama anyway!
The first ships to be automated will be ones that must comply with the Jones Act.
Hey there partner, I thought you were upset about all the politics on social media, but then in a thread about commercial drones… well, ya know!
Ha! Nah, just not enough juicy Trump stories for the media, so they post other inane stories like this.
They have unions. Pilots have associations.
They're also not encumbered by this Railway Labor Act thing...
Kind of nice being able to strike as soon as your contract expires... instead of status quo at the amendable date.
Roger Roger
Bottom of the list
Y'all do realize that the actual crews of those cargo ships are almost all young males from 2nd/3rd world countries making peanuts because of flags of convenience right? And that any attempt at work action/organization would be ruthlessly and quickly snuffed out, probably using methods that are not legal in the US?
z987k
Well-Known Member
Yup! And then the LCC's and then eventually the legacies.
The sad thing is that UPS dropped an Airbus in Birmingham a few years ago and the general public largely didn't give a poop and I'm sure there were some passive-aggressive complains written on Amazon about their shipment being delayed.
I used to think that the average consumer cared, but I really don't think they do as long as the fare is right. I do think we'll see deeper drone penetration (giggity) in aviation compared to driverless cars.
I'm not talking about the ship's crew, I'm talking about the dock workers.
Not talking about the ships crews. They're paid peanuts
I'm talking about the longshoremen who unload the ships. They disrupted a lot of cargo when they went on strike.
Soku39
Well-Known Member
We are in an era of EXTREME capitalism, to the point where we are destroying the environment past where it can be fixed, wall street runs rampant doing literally whatever they want without consequence (that said bankers are not long for this world either due to automation http://www.cnbc.com/2016/12/22/the-...-secret-algorithm-to-automate-management.html), where companies brazenly flout state and federal law (Uber), it's not even a secret that the entire Congress has been bought by special interests (and no one cares), every truck, taxi and professional driver + related industries will be out of work in under 10 years with no replacement in sight, those richest among us would rather prepare for doomsday than give back some of their unimaginable wealth http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/01/30/doomsday-prep-for-the-super-rich. In this culture why anyone would think they will keep pilots around when it will be cheaper to operate a drone is beyond me. That said I stopped worrying about it due the fact that if planes are flying themselves and we're out of a job, no one else will have a job either and much bigger issues in society will be afoot such as widespread autonomous warfare (probably to combat protesters as things get "real" out there) and no one else having a job due to tech. Hell even if the planes aren't flying themselves, who will be out there that can buy an airline ticket (same argument as if you put everyone out of work, who will buy your products that are borne of automation)? We are to the point where machines do a better job diagnosing disease than our best and most experienced doctors http://theconversation.com/digital-diagnosis-intelligent-machines-do-a-better-job-than-humans-53116 another surefire path to being upper middle class gone.
All this to say that it will be very interesting to see whether we become a more egalitarian society where tech benefits everyone or if we move towards a return to the feudal dark ages of castles and wastelands, I'm betting on the latter, because of our small peanut human brains and equally greedy human nature. The whole middle class, first world thing is over unless we figure something out and quick. I personally have seen Washington slide into a complete partisan circus from Bush 2 onwards and doubt that as a country or culture we will return to our senses in time to make the proper societal corrections.
Oh and a reminder for everyone, a now 3 year old video of the X-47B doing touch and goes by itself on a freaking aircraft carrier, to the point where differential GPS now allows them to put the tailhook in a 4 inch by 4 inch box every single time.
It'll be awhile, maybe even a longer time than I think, but make no mistake, pilots are on their way out, really most jobs are on their way out, so max those investments out now, we're gonna need em.
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Hacker15e
Who am I? Where are my pants?
What's "extreme" about that?
Soku39
Well-Known Member
Rockefeller gave back, There was an understanding between employee and employer that they benefited each other employment now seems downright hostile in so many industries. There appeared to be that at some point there were ethics on Wall Street and governemnt. Companies planned for the long term instead of bowing down to the shareholder meeting and quarterly earnings report, globalism had not yet lead to the massive offshoring of production to 3rd world countries. In my opinion business ethics simply do not exist anymore, and it is to the detriment of everyone. I'm not saying it was all rainbows, ie child labor, pre unions, The Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire etc, but it seems to me as if no one now asks the question how much is enough, and it's disheartening. Basically I have lost hope in any large scale system, government, corporation etc working for the good of the many post 2008. Frankly, it should be embarrassing to everyone participating in the society to continue to change nothing with the chasm between rich and poor continuing to grow. This I suppose is why I'm a regional FO and Air National Guard copilot and not in business.
Edit;
Basically if at some point in the future Delta can operate planes with out pilots for cheaper and in a safe manner, there will be no pilots. I basically don't understand what is so hard for pilots to understand about this. I would love to think that at 30 years old I could be hired by a major and just call it a life, but I don't think this will be true. For better or worse, our new world requires that if you wish to remain relevant you will have to constantly monitor and consider other opportunities in emerging industries given that disruption is the norm. Aviation has not changed in a long time and I would argue it is ripe for disruption.
The other day we had to go missed twice due to fog and head to an alternate, costing money and time for the passengers and company. If you don't have to worry about humans being able to see the approach lights and runway and can use a robot with differential GPS that would be able to indefinitely run 0-0 ops, why wouldn't you?
Now this is upsetting for me to think about, how could it not be, I love this job. That said, just because something is upsetting does not mean that I bury my head in the sand, make jokes about it being a "slow news day" and not think about what it means for us and what the alternatives are.
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Roger Roger
Bottom of the list
Welp, alls I can say is even the robot planes will need mechanics.
Hacker15e
Who am I? Where are my pants?
Capitalism as an economic system is responsible for the creation of the greatest wealth for the largest number of people in the history of human civilization.
There was plenty of "income equality" in Soviet Russia, though.
Cptnchia
Dissatisfied Customer
Soku39
Well-Known Member
Their dextirity is coming along quite well, and half the fixes are just replacing boxes.
Soku39
Well-Known Member
Not disagreeing with you there at all. However just because something has worked does not mean that it can not be improved or rethought as variables, in this case technology disrupting industries and destroying jobs at an unprecedented pace, change.
Roger Roger
Bottom of the list
Oh I'm sure they'll replace some of the knuckleheads painting sealant in tanks and doing daily checks. But we're a looooong way from them chasing down and fixing a weird intermittent fault buried in a wire bundle. And then you gotta maintain the robots that maintain the airplanes...
Soku39
Well-Known Member
As all jobs dissappear this an ode to thinking out of the box. We might not need as many doctors to do all the thinking, but we're sure gonna need more nurses and boomers age out. Essentially this is Mike Rowes whole thing and he's on the money for a lot it.