Online giant Amazon has unveiled new hi-tech robots with the potential to replace huge numbers of warehouse workers.
The machines, called Vulcan, have cutting-edge technology that learn to “feel” and have a human-like sense of touch. By doing so, they can carry out detailed picking and packing in warehouses that until now could only be done by people. It paves the way for the robots to take over jobs currently done by workers in Amazon’s vast warehouses – known as fulfilment centres – in the UK and around the world. Amazon, founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos, employs around 75,000 people in the UK alone, most of them in warehouses. Globally, it has about 1.5 million employees.
Not only that, but Amazon’s ground-breaking technology could be used by other companies, threatening the future of very many people employed in warehouses, especially those low-skilled and earning the least who are most at risk of being replaced by the machines. Younger and temporary workers also risk being disproportionately impacted, given the average age of an Amazon employee in the EU and UK is 35.
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https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/amazon-unveils-hi-tech-robots-35181064