by ROCKMAN » Tue 21 Feb 2017, 16:22:22
KJ - An even more logical reason to look for more jobs from the alts (and any other new theater) then coal: the coal jobs already exists. Even if US coal production increased it wouldn't bring many new jobs. Especially out west: tech could actually eliminate jobs in the one coal mining regions that has actually been growing in recent years:
Self-driving trucks have begun to hit the roads in the United States, but they’re already hard at work in Australia. British mining company Rio Tinto has 73 autonomous behemoths transporting iron ore 24 hours a day in West Angelas, Australia, across four job sites, according to MIT Tech Review. The autonomous fleet is roughly 15% cheaper than one with human drivers.
{Long ago someone in the coal biz explained why they went with huge carriers: to save money by reducing the employee count especially in union shops}
The trucks, made by Japanese manufacturer Komatsu, weigh 416 tons and use a mix of GPS, radar, and laser sensors to navigate a site. Their job is simple: go to a load site, wait to be filled with iron ore, and then drive to another location. Komatsu estimates that their autonomous trucks have already hauled 1 billion tons of material, mainly in Australia and Chile.
LOADED
Self-driving, 416-ton trucks are hauling raw materials around Australia
Dave Gershgorn December 29, 2016
In this Nov. 15, 2016 photo, a mechanized shovel loads coal from an 80-feet thick seam into a haul truck at Cloud Peak Energy's Spring Creek mine near Decker, Mont. Coal from the mine is shipped to power plants for generating electricity. President-elect Donald Trump's vow to revive coal country is met with measured hope in Appalachia and even out West, where mines stand to gain the most. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)
Soon to be a human-free workspace. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)
Self-driving trucks have begun to hit the roads in the United States, but they’re already hard at work in Australia.
British mining company Rio Tinto has 73 autonomous behemoths transporting iron ore 24 hours a day in West Angelas, Australia, across four job sites, according to MIT Tech Review. The autonomous fleet is roughly 15% cheaper than one with human drivers.
The trucks, made by Japanese manufacturer Komatsu, weigh 416 tons and use a mix of GPS, radar, and laser sensors to navigate a site. Their job is simple: go to a load site, wait to be filled with iron ore, and then drive to another location. Komatsu estimates that their autonomous trucks have already hauled 1 billion tons of material, mainly in Australia and Chile.
The human team overseeing the robots work 750 miles away, according to MIT Tech Review, far from being able to physically take action should something go wrong.
Autonomous systems have been pitched to mining companies as a safer, cheaper way to operate their business. Mining sites are usually remote and highly regulated already, making them a stable training ground for robots, according to Herman Herman, director of the National Robotics Engineering Center at Carnegie Mellon University.
Caterpillar, an American Komatsu competitor, says its autonomous trucks provide the same work as a skilled truck driver no matter where the site is located, meaning mining companies don’t need to worry about the quality of local labor in remote mines. The company also points to the trucks’ ability to alert mine staff the second it notices any abnormalities on the site.
However, the fact remains that these machines are replacing well-paying jobs. And mining certainly isn’t the end. While the work sites can be more complex, construction is also fertile ground for automation. Construction inspection might be a first step towards automation in the field, like automatically assessing railway tracks or using drones for building inspections.
