"HEY, R2, CAN YOU WIPE THE OATMEAL OFF MY CHIN?" (via Tom Morin):

Toyota to employ robots (News24.com, 06/01/2005)

Toyota Motor will introduce robots which can work as well or better than humans at all 12 of its factories in Japan to cut costs and deal with a looming labour shortage as the country ages, a report said on Thursday.

The robots would be able to carry out multiple tasks simultaneously with their two arms, achieving efficiency unseen in human workers and matching the cheap wages of Chinese labourers, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun said. [...]

"We aim to reduce production costs to the levels in China," the daily quoted an unnamed company official as saying.

Toyota also took into account the looming labour shortage in Japan due to a declining birthrate, the report said.

Japan's population is forecast to peak by 2006 with the average number of children a woman has during her lifetime standing at a post-World War II low of 1.29, according to the latest government data.

Japan has so far rejected calls to open up to large numbers of unskilled immigrants, fearing the effects on the country's social framework.

Which ties into two recurring themes: nothing ever gets more expensive; and they'll have to use these to provide nursing care as they age, meaning you'll die in the arms of your indifferent vacuum cleaner.

Posted by Orrin Judd at January 8, 2005 6:20 AM