Will Tesla’s Self-Driving Cars Ever Actually Drive Themselves?

Over the years, Elon Musk has boasted about Tesla’s self-driving capabilities. But, honestly, just how autonomous is the car—and will it really ever be able to drive itself?

Reuters reports that Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, began touting “Autopilot,” the car’s “full self-driving capability,” back in 2015. Now, it’s 2019, and we’ve yet to see Musk’s promises come to fruition.

Setting the Groundwork

In October 2015, Musk declared that all new Teslas would be built with the hardware that is required for full self-driving. One year later, Tesla began offering a $5,000 “Enhanced Autopilot” option and an additional $3,000 “Full Self-Driving Capability” option. These options would make the cars ready for the eventual rollout of the corresponding software. At this time, Musk predicted that, by the end of 2017, a Tesla would be able to drive across the county in full autonomous mode “without the need for a single touch.”

No Forward Progress… Yet

In June 2018, Musk tweeted that the Autopilot driver assistance system would soon get full self-driving features. And, in October 2018, Tesla introduced software intended to help the car “navigate on Autopilot,” particularly for on/off ramps, lane changes, and highway interchanges.

Bold Predictions for the Future

But now it’s April 2019, and although the Tesla is still not driving itself, the company says it’s making “significant progress” on the Full Self-Driving (FSD) computer. The Autopilot system is now standard on all Tesla vehicles, and Musk says it’s the only company to have a full self-driving suite of hardware. In fact, he’s now making even bolder predictions about the great self-driving things to come:

  • In 2020, Tesla will have “over a million cars with full self-driving, software, everything.”
  • “Probably two years from now, we’ll make a car with no steering wheels or pedals.”
  • Tesla will have autonomous “robotaxis” without drivers in some U.S. markets in 2020.

What Do You Think?

Will the arrival of self-driving cars be good or bad for the U.S. job market?

Service Robots Begin to Take People’s Jobs

For most American’s, particularly those working in the food service and hospitality industries, automation has been very minimal and hasn’t taken peoples jobs away. That is about the change.

Enter the “Service Robots”. This new addition to the world of robot workers is aimed at one thing. Replacing workers. Workers who support their families. Workers are known by another name, “labor costs”, and robots keep labor costs low.

The proof is coming from our neighbors across the Pacific, in China. A great article posted on technode.com by Nicole Jao covered the rise of service robots in China and how orders for new service robots has increased by 44% and is continued to expand by double digits going forward.

American companies in the service industries are ripe to jump on the bandwagon. As more companies enter the robotics manufacturing space, prices will fall and mass implementation will take place. American workers, like their counterparts in Asia and Europe will end up facing extinction in many sectors.

Let us know how you feel about service robots taking jobs away from workers?

Can You Save Your Job from the Robots?

Over the next 15 to 20 years, up to 47 percent of U.S. jobs may be replaced by robots and artificial intelligence. Here’s what you need to know.

The job-stealing robots are not the clunky, blue-collar machines of the past. Rather, reports The New Yorker magazine, they are white-collar robots (aka globots) that will come in the form of algorithms and remote intelligence. In fact, says economist Richard Baldwin, they will come for the “good, stable jobs that have been the foundation of middle-class prosperity” in the U.S. and abroad.

So, how can you tell if your job is one of the endangered? “If your job can be easily explained, it can be automated,” says Anders Sandberg of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute. “If it can’t, it won’t.” Meanwhile, economist Richard Baldwin advises workers to 1) avoid competing with artificial intelligence, 2) build skills in things that only humans can do, in person, and 3) realize that humanity is an edge, not a handicap.

What human skills can save you from being replaced by robots and artificial intelligence?

Blockchain Enables Overseas Military to Vote in 2020 Presidential Election

Military voters stationed overseas will be able to cast votes for the 2020 presidential election, thanks to a mobile app that uses a private blockchain. But is it too risky?

Startup Voatz created an app that can enhance participation by overseas voters, reports MIT Technology Review. And West Virginia’s elections director Donald Kersey thinks it’s a better, more secure alternative to using mail-in ballots. But not everyone agrees. Election security experts, in particular, oppose online voting of any kind. In fact, cryptographers, computer scientists, and political scientists, have determined that internet voting systems cannot preserve the secrecy expected from democratic elections. Furthermore, blockchains have their own, unique security vulnerabilities.

Despite these concerns, West Virginia plans to move forward with the blockchain app. Kersey was pleased with the “really good response rate” of the pilot program during the 2018 midterm elections. “We are not saying mobile voting is the best solution to the problem, we are not saying that blockchain technology is the best solution to storage of security data,” says Kersey. “What we are saying though is that it’s better than what we have.”

Would you cast a vote for president via a mobile app?

Blended Workforce: The Future of Humans and Robots Working Together

Organizations know that the future workforce will look different, but they’re not preparing as they should. Turns out, humans and robots can make a really good team.

Forbes reports that artificial intelligence will eliminate human jobs, but not necessarily as organizations envision it. For example, rather than replace all human employees with technology, companies should begin developing a blended workforce. To do so, they’ll need a combination of full-time employees, public freelancers, and robots. This will enable companies to maximize the contributions of both humans and machines.

To accomplish this, employers must reimagine how to recruit and develop human workers. Specifically, they must invest in training to increase the data literacy of all employees: white collar, blue collar, and new collar. Furthermore, they must emphasize continuous learning if they want to compete in a fast-paced world. Accordingly, job seekers who are strong in collaboration, critical thinking, communications, cultural fluency, and change management, along with creativity and innovation, will thrive.

What strengths will you bring to tomorrow’s blended workforce?

Even the comedians are dialed into A.I.

Even the comedians are dialed into A.I. and Robot Job Losses on the horizon, but the last laugh might be on us.

Comedian and host of the HBO show Last Week Tonight, John Oliver, aired a segment in which he focused on the theme that children may not be ready for the effects of the ever approaching rise of A.I. and robotics replacing real workers and eliminating jobs.

Oliver took his usual pot shots at President Trump and his focus on increasing manufacturing jobs in the US, which appear very likely to be replaced by automation like robots, but he also added the advances in A.I. may accelerate job losses.

Oliver goes on to ask a group of children what they want to do for work when they grow up and reports that each will be replaced by a robot and that they need to choose another job. The video, although crude in several parts, is actually quite funny. In the end, with advances in A.I., robotics, machine learning and blockchain, the job losses may ultimately leave fifty percent of the population without a job.

What do you think?

Today’s Kids Will Compete with Automation in Tomorrow’s Job Market

Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver interviewed kids about what they wanted to be when they grew up. But the jobs they list – pilot, doctor, artist – may look very different as the world becomes increasingly automated.

Time reported that Oliver addressed the fact that jobs are not just moving overseas—they’re also being lost to something in the U.S.: automation. “Our manufacturing sector now produces twice as much, but with one-third fewer workers,” said Oliver. As such, the jobs of the future are not the jobs of the past, and children must prepare for a market of automation and robots.

Oliver wants to see the Trump Administration focus less on job loss to other countries and more on retraining employees who lose their jobs to automation. Up to 50 percent of human jobs are at high risk of being automated, says a study from Oxford University. That means that humans should prepare for what author Farai Chideya calls “episodic careers,” moving from one career to another over the course of a lifetime.

Fortunately for Oliver, robots won’t replace all jobs: “A robot could never be a late night host,” he joked. What jobs do you think will be automated next?

Women’s Jobs at Higher Risk of Being Eliminated by Automation

In an interesting new perspective on the coverage of how automation is likely to drastically reduce jobs, the UK has noted that many of the initial jobs that may be eliminated by technological automation like AI, robotics, blockchain and autonomous transportation are jobs currently held predominately by women. An article in the Independent (link to https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/women-uk-jobs-rate-automation-young-people-robots-ai-a8840226.html ) outlined some key elements of a UK government study.

The article references three occupations with the highest probability of automation were found to be waiters and waitresses, shelf-stackers and basic retail roles but, women in more advanced jobs are also more likely to lose their job to automation.

This article also references that younger people will also be at higher risk of having their jobs eliminated and that they will have limited opportunities to learn about their industry and career when the entry level jobs no longer exist.

What are your thoughts?

White Collar Job Loss to Tech Innovation

Professor Richard Baldwin has been researching Globalization for over 30 years. Without question, he has access to the latest information about how technology is impacting jobs and how its continued development is very likely to do so in future, near and far. Mr. Baldwin has published a new book entitled The Globotics Upheaval which gives his unique and well-researched perspective on the future of work and the jobs that will be impacted. The picture for many workers in the US is not pretty. What is somewhat unique to us is how he quickly points out that many future job losses to technological innovation will impact white-collar office jobs, not just low skill jobs.

The Wharton School of Business had Professor Baldwin on a recent podcast and provided both access to same as well as a limited transcript of parts of the interview, entitled How Globalization and Robotics Speed Up Job Losses

In the interview Professor Baldwin brings up the concept of improved digital technology leading to white collar jobs being lost to far less expensive foreign workers like tele-migrants or international freelancers who can leverage remote work capabilities.We agree that employers will seek out cost savings and move work around, which will cost American jobs.

The interview also contained an ominous warning that “It is a serious possibility that the displacement will happen very fast.” .

We agree.

Tell us what you think?

Autonomous vehicles and job loss documentary

A somewhat unexpected group formed to produce a documentary on coming self-driving or autonomous vehicles, and some of the keyway that they will impact the world, including mass job loss.

IAutonomy was produced by Car & Driver Magazine, directed by Alex Horwitz and features none other than famed author Malcomb Gladwell as Executive Producer.

The documentary was shown at the most recent SXSW to a limited audience and is in the process of exploring a deal to make it available for distribution. Two great articles cover the documentary and offer some interesting perspective on the fact that many people do not conceptualize the impact that autonomous vehicles will have on jobs and the associated job loss, from two different perspectives. 

The first article worth a read is from Nick Statt @NickStatt from the Verge entitled New Documentary Autonomy makes the convincing case that self-driving cars will change everything . The second is an interview by Dan Costa of PCMag.com with Alex Horwitz entitled ‘Autonomy’ Documentary Director: Don’t Fear Our Self-Driving Future.