Robotic airports

There may not be any showy robots like C3PO from Star Wars hanging out at the airport, but as reported by the WSJ we can see the beginnings of robot technology at work:

Airlines are laying the groundwork for the next big step in the increasingly automated airport experience: a trip from the curb to the plane without interacting with a single airline employee.

Unions understand what is happening:

Airline-employee unions, however, say the machines are a way for carriers to cut staff by outsourcing preboarding tasks to fliers. "Clearly it's not something passengers are clamoring for," said Frank Larkin, spokesman for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. "More technology, fewer people? I don't think so."

I’m generally happy with self-service. You don’t have to tip machines, and if they build enough of them, there’s no waiting in line. Airports always seem to have lines for everything. I really hate lines.

New Jersey is the most annoying place to buy gasoline because a featherbedding law requires the gas to be pumped by employees of the gas station. This usually means sitting in your car and waiting for the guy to come over, and then sitting in the car and waiting again for the guy to come back after the gas automatically stops pumping.

Rich people probably like being serviced because it feeds their oversized egos and makes them feel like bigshots, and as I point out, in the future a lot of middle-class jobs will be about performing unnecessary services for rich people so they can have that feeling of superiority over the masses.

Comments

[John]

Will they actually provide enough self-service kiosks? What will they do about idiots who can't figure out the system holding up everybody behind them? I've seen that problem at grocery stores with self-service checkout.

How much incentive do the airlines really have to reduce check in lines? With many tickets being non-refundable or having high change fees, they actually have an incentive to make you miss the flight.

[Abelard Lindsey]

I generally prefer self-serve as well. Automation check-in at the airport takes less time and is far more convenient than having to deal with empolyees at check-in.

Same for the grocery store. If I have a few items, I prefer self-check out. If I have a shopping cart full of stuff, then I prefer the traditional check-out.

Oregon state also requires gas station employees pump the gas. I find this annoying because you often have to wait longer than if you can pump it yourself. That's why I try to fill-up on the Washington state side even though it costs a few cents more per gallon than in Oregon.

[Scarlet Knight]

Fuck off. Pumping your own gas is for losers. I hope NJ never gets rid of this law.

[Bill]

I've never lived in a state where other people pump your gas. The idea seems old fashioned. I love any self-checkout option because I typically buy a bag or two of groceries at a time.

HS is totally correct in that rich people will never give up services provided by actual human beings. That is probably where all this surplus labor will go. In the automated future, no amount of public welfare assistance will be sufficient. The top 20% will live like patricians and hire the bottom 40% as domestic help or for any personalized service imaginable.

[hm]

Love any technology that get rid of human service except sex.

With online ticketing, travel agency is doomed. With self-driving car, many automobile based service jobs would be over. Dream comes true for all introverts. When social skill no longer that important, geeks actually love this brave new world. When trading computerized, salesmen are doomed.

[Just Speculating]

"HS is totally correct in that rich people will never give up services provided by actual human beings".

The debut of personal automatons will be reserved for a select few who have the money to buy them, which will perform efficient and immediate tasks. A press of the button and the robot gives you your thing. No need to get it yourself, or call out a person and wait incessantly for it.

[Kiwiguy]

OT. NYC map of Republicans.

http://project.wnyc.org/nyc-republicans/index.html

[Drole Prole]

Self check-in kiosks at airports tend to be faster than checking in with a human. They could transition to 100% self check-in and have two or so employees assist customers with issues with the kiosks.

[ode]

A good example of a self service technology is ATM machines.
What now takes about 20 secounds to do at an ATM machine used to take up to 20 minutes back in the old days when the only way to make a withdraw was to stand in line at a bank to wait and talk to a human being.

[Fiddlesticks]

If you have a good lobby you can get politicians to shelter you from change and automation - see: healthcare, new car dealers, real estate.

Even GM/Chrysler bankruptcies and the mortgage meltdown weren't enough to get politicians to streamline away the value transferees and rent seekers.

[King Missile]

HS, having others pump your gas is great, particularly during winter, hot summer days, and if you drive a diesel. Why if you drive a diesel? Diesel tends to get on ones hands very easily, especially if there is residual diesel on the pump itself.

[JP]

"You don’t have to tip machines" -- who gives tips at airports? There is nobody tipworthy there. Even curbside check-in is a service you have to pay for, and I'm damned if I'll tip for it (not that I use it anyway).

Unfortunately they cannot roboticize the longest, most annoying line - security. They ought to, since it is a farce anyway, but they won't. We will always be "served" by fat, stupid NAMs and proles in these lines.

[Kyo]

Being raised in NJ, as a kid I had no idea self-pumping was legal. When the family went for a drive to some faraway state and we stopped for gas, Dad got out and picked up the pump; I'm thinking, "Is he STEALING GAS!?"

Even now it still looks weird to see someone (in a TV show set in a self-pump state, say) step out of their car and just start helping themselves to the gas pump.

[DaveinHackensack]

I remember going to fill up a rental car on the way to LAX during a business trip once and sitting in front of the pump for a few minutes before I remembered you pump your own gas in most places other than NJ.