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what would you automate?

A simple act of kindness. No good deed goes unpunished. Platitudes can be stacked one on top of the other. Yesterday I was focused on doing various things down in Northern Virginia (some would call it work)! To save time, I take the back way home. Last night about 12 miles from our house, in the backwoods of rural Maryland (which is not rural and not backwoods) I to stop to allow the herd of deer to cross the road. Hitting a deer with your car is never recommended. The reason, even though it was dark, was that the driver protection system or the collision avoidance system depending on what you choose to call it, start beeping.

Hear a beep, check the rearview mirror, and then hit the brakes. I really appreciated the sensor system that uses Lidar and protects me from not seeing. Deer in the darkness that are not directly in the headlamps are hard to see! The Lidar based driver protection systems are a step towards driverless cars but not driverless. No matter how good that system is you should never take your hands off the wheels. That got me thinking about the world around us and the reality of taking your hands off the wheel. For example, a large jet has an autopilot system, The pilot and copilot only have their hands on the wheel (or yoke as it is called in a plane) when the plane is having issues or taking and landing.

When would you take your hands off the wheel?

It is a question that I asking often. When would I personally take my eye or hands off the wheel? If I a pilot would I sit in the seat and clutch the yoke all 8-12 hours of a flight? You get pretty tired concentrating that long on one thing. Would you let go of the wheel to let you car parallel park? Would you let go of the hand of a 3-year-old known to run?

The reason for all of this is the growing reality of what is Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Computers are much better at pattern matching that most human beings are. Not always, there are shades of patterns that AI can’t spot. But, for the most part, a computer is better at pattern matching. So let’s play the what would you automate game. I will ask some poll questions, feel free to add more things you would be willing to have automated.

(automated means no human or limited human interaction required).

  • Question of

    Would you use a robotic vaccum?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    would you use a robotic dishwasher?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    What about a robotic clothes washing machine?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    How about a robot lawn mower?

    • Yes
    • No
  • Question of

    What about a robot that rakes your leaves?

    • Yes
    • No

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What do you think?

21 Points

Written by DocAndersen

One fan, One team and a long time dream Go Cubs!!!!!!!!!!!!!

48 Comments

  1. Everything that makes daily chores easier is welcome. However, I am a bit more sceptical when it comes to automation in cars, but I don’t know much about it either.

    1
  2. The only thing I may consider is the lawn. That being said, I like doing these things because I benefit from the exercise. I thing we will all become vegetables in a few years it we depend too much on robots.

    1
  3. Q: Would you use a robotic vaccum?
    Yes (9 votes) – 90%
    No (1 votes) – 10%
    Q: would you use a robotic dishwasher?
    Yes (7 votes) – 70%
    No (3 votes) – 30%
    Q: What about a robotic clothes washing machine?
    Yes (6 votes) – 67%
    No (3 votes) – 33%
    Q: How about a robot lawn mower?
    Yes (5 votes) – 56%
    No (4 votes) – 44%
    Q: What about a robot that rakes your leaves?
    Yes (5 votes) – 56%
    No (4 votes) – 44%

  4. All those things you mentioned would be great to have depending on the kind of house one is living in and the size of their family. Being alone in a tiny apartment the only thing I would enjoy having is a robot that could dust and vacuum so it would be like having a bit of company,

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    • There is something about having clean floors, but not having to Vaccum (or mop) that is tremendous!

      The dogs track mud in the house from the basement door. (there is a dog door in it for them).

      We have the vacuum that runs at 1 pm, at 3 pm we have the robotic mop. It has decreased the amount of mud tracked around the house by 50%,

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  5. I would take the sensor in the car right away, but I don’t know if this is already possible with us. There are a lot of deer on our roads. I have a robot vacuum cleaner that I am very happy with. The rest I don’t think I would use.

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  6. Although I quite often follow technology articles, including reading your posts, I am sometimes quite late to learn something new from technology, including about automation. What? Is that stuff automated too? Great!

    I also often visit shopping sites, again I say that, what? Of all the appliance you asked about, I said yes to all.

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  7. The partner has a robot vacuum cleaner and sucks around the house ….. this seems like a good innovation and she says it does a good job … better vacuum cleaner than I have haha ….. I’ve seen the robot lawnmower before, only the neighbor doesn’t boast too much
     

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  8. Well written poll.
    One time as we went fishing, deer skipped our car.
    No one would help there because it was coming laterally.
    I’m sorry I don’t have an automatic lawnmower but I have to. I’m pushing.

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  9. Some things we need to keep doing ourselves so we do not become an even lazier society! Even though the robot vacuum with the Dude sitting on it seems like a pretty cool thing to try out. 🙂

    1