There aren’t two ways about it, Elon Musk is a visionary. His latest goal is something that falls right on the border of madness, but if anyone can pull it off, he can.
His new goal is to phase out the use of human labor in Tesla factories, and instead use automation to an extent that is currently thought to be impossible. The workers in Tesla’s California plant recently talked to the Guardian about Mr. Musk’s drive to perform, and some were less than thrilled about his goal oriented mentality.
It would appear that Mr. Musk is one step ahead of the game, and is already putting a plan in motion to do away with labor as it is currently understood. His goal appears to be a totally automated factory, and if he is able to make it happen it will be the stuff of legends.
The recent acquisition by Tesla of a German firm called Grohmann Engineering is probably a part of his plan, as they specialize in automated industrial processes. This is likely the thin end of the wedge, as Tesla aims to revamp the way automobiles are produced.
It would appear that Elon Musk has a vision of the future wherein humans are totally removed from the fabrication of automobile technology, and this raises some interesting questions about the value of labor.
In an automated society people wouldn’t be able to provide for themselves by working, so we are left wondering how they could afford a Tesla. Mr. Musk is planning to try out his new idea with the launch of the upcoming Tesla Model Y, and this is extremely risky.
Implementing new automation technology on an existing vehicle platform is difficult, but attempting to do it on a new platform could be considered reckless. Regardless, he has the full faith of the financial world, with a market cap that is approaching the value of General Motors.
This is truly impressive for a company that hasn’t ever turned a profit, and just keeps spending money. Time will tell if his vision will become a reality, but we will never doubt that he is completely sincere in his desire to revamp society as we know it.
[via businessinsider]
I wrote this comment few years ago and I think is adequate for this topic; the part about jobs (you can change word robot for AI):
For this problem I see very easy solution. But should be on scale to a workers revolution when we adopted 8hr workday.
1. robot please take my job (I’ll explain)
2. today and in future there is and will be even more new knowledge to learn by individuals to even live in modern society. Today we are bombarded with info and hardly cope with everything in our daily lives. So problem of modern society is mostly lack of time.
3. Where to get this time ? We need 8h of sleep. We need free time to learn new things and be with families more than ever. So, for me is only logical answer in reducing working time.
4. It is very non realistic to think that robot will replace humans in work force. To whom will then be sold all the goods that those automated factory will produce if people will have no money.
5. I think the only and best solution is to gradually reduce working time. Let say to 6h daily. With this move we can actually employ almost all unemployed at this moment. Sure at beginning average wages will go down for cca 10% but with lower costs for unemployment and actually more gdp produced by those now unemployed the GDP will eventually rise. This move to 6h work day could compensate for first steps to robotization production and eliminating most of unemployment.
6. With the advancement in robotization production we can move to 4h work day in next century and lower. For sake of argument we can go to even 1h work day but this will not affect our standard of living.
7. People mostly don’t realize that money is worthless paper. It is just mathematical function how goods produced in the world is divided among us. But is important that we have money since number on pay check tells us what is our worth in the world and therefore how much produced goods can we afford. So, this is just some numerical value. And sum of all those money values in the world is equal to produced goods. If we work e.g 1h a day because most of production is made by robots and output of factories is equal or even bigger than today’s, again those good will be divided among people by there input ( only 1h but never the less). And on there pay check would be same relative number as on today’s paychecks.
8. 8h work day is not given by god but is agreed among people. And today’s standard is much much higher than 150 or 200 years ago when people work 14 to 16 hours a day. So, work hour has nothing to do with standard of living in robotized society but only how we can make now agreement on dividing produced gods with diminishing hours spend on work.
Mr. Mark … Just cause you can do it, doesnt mean you have to do it. Think Jurassic park … Let’s all take personal ego out of the equation and spin it back onto humanity