Qatar Developing Solar Powered Traffic Robots
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 30 of December , 2009 at 3:06 am
Qatar’s Public Works Authority and the Qatar Science Club are cooperating to develop solar powered robots that will help guide traffic around road construction sites. They’ll be replacing the people who hold the reversible STOP and SLOW signs when two lanes have been reduced to one by a backhoe or something. This makes sense, I guess… It’s something a robot would be good at. But on the other hand, it’s an unnecessary upgrade that is probably going to directly or indirectly put a human out of a job. Hypothetically, this isn’t a bad thing. Hypothetically, giving a robot a job that a robot would be good at allows humans to move on to jobs that humans are better at, which implies something more interesting, or at least something with more variety. Hypothetically.
This doesn’t seem to be the way it actually works, unfortunately. What happens is that the robots take your job, and you’re unemployed all summer, or worse. I’m really not sure what the right answer is here… I’d like to just say, “yeah! Let the robots do all the work while we sit back and sip martinis!” But martinis are expensive, especially when you’re unemployed. I think that there are some jobs that robots are great at, and great for, but at the same time, just because a robot can doesn’t always mean a robot should. Have some sympathy on us humans. We’re fragile and poor.
[ Peninsula Qatar ] VIA [ Ecofriend ]
Comments (4)
Category: General
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Comment by Robotbling
Made Wednesday, 30 of December , 2009 at 3:29 am
Qatar doesn’t have a sterling human rights record, so the underpaid workers who normally do this sort of job are probably better off.
Comment by Kevin H
Made Wednesday, 30 of December , 2009 at 11:04 am
When I was in Scotland on a business trip recently, they actually had timed portable signal lights. Amazing that nobody thought of this before.
Comment by Robert Geczi
Made Thursday, 31 of December , 2009 at 1:40 am
I wouldn’t be too worried about job loss overall. If people are willing to adapt, they can. And not having money, is a surefire situation to increase motivation. ;) It’s not like one day all the holders of traffic signs lose their jobs to a worldwide fleet of robots. This will inevitably happen over time.
Comment by Joey1058
Made Saturday, 2 of January , 2010 at 12:46 am
Evan, you’re gonna hate me, but I’m of the school of “Robots don’t need to be humanoid to be effective”. This guy is cool, but it would be cheaper to have a simple mechanism with infared sensors that rotated the “stop/slow” signs when the lanes cleared. Kevin H is right. Scotland has the right idea.
