Although the idea of downsizing workers is inauspicious to the working class, it is most likely that there may be an increment in the unemployment rate due to technological advancement, as a single machine can replace humans in work operations.
Nuro Robotics Company kicked off its robot delivery service using a Toyota Prius self-driving technology to deliver goods to customers’ doorstep.Since the first autonomous delivery started in 2014 by Skype Communications, the technology has fast grown to replace service delivery workers.
Nuro has recorded prominence in its service delivery as it was the first to obtain a special exemption from the Federal Safety requirements and also the first to charge for its driverless delivery service in California, USA.
The company is presently laying off 20 percent of its workforce, which amounts to 300 out of its 1500 employees. Although the management explains the action as a reactive measure to manage the challenging economic grip facing the entire tech industry; therefore, it could no longer keep a larger workforce.
The co-founders of Nuro, Dave Ferguson and Jiajun Zhu stated, “This result is on us; we doubled the size of our team in less than two years and significantly increased our operating expenses, assuming the funding environment would remain strong. This was a mistake”.
The reason for laying off workers seems logical if reasoned from the perspective of administration, but it still does not give a strong footing since the company just embraced a major innovative use of autonomous vehicles for goods and services delivery, thereby resulting to free workers who may have been occupied with the job, this must have stimulated the action of the company to layoff some staff.
Is technology now a threat to livelihood?
Amidst the downsizing, the co-founders stated that “Nuro is on the right path to commercial autonomous vehicles at scale.” It seems to be more than just the survival struggle of the tech industry but also the emergence, populace, and human replacement of this technology in the work sector. Can it be said that technology is more lethargic than beneficial to the working class since it has added to the unemployment rate?
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Photo by Nuro
