I’m in a park. The grass is being mown by a robot.

Automation isn't the enemy.

As ever, the owner class that hoards and wages economic war on you though automation for their exclusive benefit at their society's expense are your enemy, whether you would fight them or not.

Arguing that we should "save" back breaking, repetitive unnatural movement, manual labor jobs that break human bodies by the time they're 40 is the WRONG hill to die on. Fight for the citizenry to reap the benefits of automation through taxation, not to keep shitty jobs robots can do faster and better. Fight to change the economy so that everyone doesn't need meaningless jobs machines can do better so we can have actual time to live our lives.

Taxing the fuck out of automation would let everyone win, because a heavily taxed robot is still far cheaper for the company than a human or possibly several humans for that one robot would be, so automation is here either way. We can riot to change our economy to benefit from this technology as we should, or we can be steamrolled yet again by the dictates of the affluent who will demand and get all the benefits and none of the responsibility if not confronted and countered on revolutionary terms.

Please pick the former. There's no dignity or meaning to be had shuffling boxes around in an Amazon warehouse. Begging the owners to let us try to continue to compete with literal purpose built repetitive labor machines is not the way.

Are these the immigrants that are stealing all our jobs?

My curiosity got the best of me, here's the link to Wright: https://www.wrightmfg.com/products/mowers/commercial/stand-on/robotic-zk/

The Mower

• 40HP Vanguard Engine
• Hydro-Gear Smartec Drive-By-Wire 12cc
• 15.5 Gallon Fuel Capacity
• Centimeter-level accurate RTK GPS
• Commercial-grade Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)
• Depth-sensing object detection cameras
• Rock-solid wireless emergency stop
• Remote control mode
• Live Greenzie support: Call for support while in the field for real-time fixes.

The Software

• Mow the boundary once, and the mower fills in the rest
• Remembers maps and can repeat them when you come back. Just place it in the previous boundary.
• Create no-go zones that will be saved with your map to avoid hitting hard-to-see obstacles like drain covers or small pipes sticking out of the ground.
• Record and repeat: Record yourself mowing the entire property, and the mower will replicate your movement.
• Manage the mower with the controller or a smart device in real-time.
• Advanced fleet support: See how your fleet is performing. Replay entire jobs, not just a dot on the map.
• Run multiple units at once.
• Set the stripe angle (for those stunning cross-hatch patterns)
• Seamless automatic updates

Never seen a gas powered automatic lawnmower, only electric ones.

You in the US?

Robot lawn mowers are very common in Europe. You'll see these small electric mowers in people's yards all over the place. Businesses also have them running all day out front. Never seen one in the US.

They are equipped with GPS, so they are locked to a specific area to prevent theft.

Reminds me of this meme:

How many mowers do you think you could get your hands on before they catch you?

I had a job offer at a place that makes robotic lawnmowers, but they required you to go to Florida and Texas every year for “field testing”. We have sunshine 300 days a year here, and we also don’t have barbaric laws stripping people of their rights, so I turned it down.

"Charles, where'd the puppy go?" Sees this thing

That's one expensive goat.

ok what happens if this hits a child though?

I think I would have a genuinely hard time not messing with this or trying to ride it. Both which are objectively terrible ideas nonetheless it feels really tempting.

Sad really. Somebody lost a job to that. Minimum wage probably, but still a wage.

Throw a tennis ball in its path and see what happens. It must be safe, right? Right‽

Don't disturb the wildlife.

Took ‘er jerbs

Tactical EMP’s are necessary now.

My dog is super fascinated by lawn mower robots. Every time we see one he has to stand and watch for a couple of minutes. I wonder how he'd react to one of this size. Interestingly, he doesn't care much for our robot vacuum. For the most part he avoids it, sometimes he lays down in its way and freaks out when it bumps into him.

I'm a bit late to the party, but you can buy small ones of these for your own yards:
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Greenworks-Robotic-Lawn-Mower-1-2-Acre-To-1-Acre/5014505685

I've seen a couple of these on smallish business lawns.

I'm guessing its mortal enemy is the beach towel.

that mechine can throw rocks hundreds of feet. Did it shut itself down like safety demands when you are that close?

First thing I thought of was "Maximum Overdrive ". Loved that movie when I was a kid.

TIL of the existence and proper use of the word mown

It's more likely remote controlled. There's probably a guy with a controller near by. They've been around for a couple of decades now, but are generally only used where an angle is too steep or too close to a highway or cliff face.

Going to need you to lay down in front of the mower to see if it stops.

The public demands to know.

Seriously? Even the lawn mower guys get to work from home now?

I was going to make a morbid joke about the driver having already fallen off and into the blades before you took the photo, but the fact that there's no seat on that mower defeated that plan.

_{Anti Commercial-AI license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)}

Literally Lawnmower Man.

that's not a fucking combusion engine is it? a robot mower that runs on gasoline would be the stupidest thing i've seen in a while.

Parkba!

Wow I didn’t know they were commercially available. That is so cool!

I admit, it's very impressive and cool to see in person, but at what cost? This particular instance has taken away someone's job. There is no human remotely controlling it. Now imagine how many of these are currently out there and will be deployed in near future? For each one there is someone's income being taken away. Sure, we can argue that this autonomous machine has create jobs becuase, some had to build it. Yes, it's true, but those hired to manufacture are fraction of the lawnmowers needed to cut grass not one but throughout the spring had summer seasons. In a broader context, this is becoming an issue for many low skill jobs and essential jobs. (i.e. self-checkouts at fast foods and other retailers, security posts in airports, malls, etc.) Look up Amazon Digit to see what amazon is up. While many will find it beneficial and this is really hurting the class that needs the money the most, needs the health benefits that comes from there income.

Am I alone in thinking it should be "is being mowed" because "mown" is a resultant property of the grass? Like being melted and being molten. Or is it one of these things non-native speakers develop a keen intuition for to be able to spot it just to be blind-sided by native speakers not giving a fuck.

don't like that.

Why is that worth a post? I suspect there are more lawn robots here in Germany than Dads mowing the lawn. Also, you don't want to know what those things typically do to Sonic's babies if they are programmed to mow at night.

For the curious https://youtu.be/t1__h7vnnKY?si=K-RBu5beMPJYNNMn