The Boss Is Robotic, and Rolling Up Behind You | Hacker News Reader

The Boss Is Robotic, and Rolling Up Behind You

nytimes.com

41 pointsdavi7 comments

Am I the only one who thinks this product could be a game changer? Maybe the tipping point that makes employers embrace hiring telecommuters?

I have to say, its pretty incredible, but I imagine its kind of expensive. Might be able to convince the boss you could offset the cost with the fact your not taking up a seat in the office. Depends.

As these develop, there are huge opportunities for improving transnational trade. For example, I am interested in using this to monitor a Chinese manufacturing facility for QA of product before containers are shipped stateside. That reduces huge amounts of money and opportunity cost spent on cross-Pacific travel.

QA in Chinese manufacturing is much more complicated than that. Look at this example that I just got from an excellent blog I normally follow:

http://silkroadintl.net/blog/2010/09/01/%e2%80%9cdoing-busin...

Note the amount of local knowledge required to make things happen. One cannot acquire that much knowledge with a webcam attached to a machine.

My point it that it's not just a matter of being physically somewhere, but also the context knowledge that matters.

The article you linked was not about QA, it was about contract negotiations for one-off projects.

I source thousands of tons of material from Chinese factories, and the QA challenge is different. My option is to station Chinese employees (who are trustworthy) at multiple factories overseas to verify product quantities and quality prior to sailing the can. Or I could have my Chinese-American staff in the US office monitor shipments via remote robotics.

Certainly telepresence does not replace international trips to build and maintain the relationship, but it can greatly assist in monitoring QA processes after the initial setup has been completed.

So how that would be different from someone local holding a webcam? (or a cell phone)

My point is that maybe there is an opportunity for such solution today. Instead of an expensive robot, one could hire a trusted person to hold a camera, so someone else could do the inspection remotely.

Would that be useful for your job?

AnyBots founder and CEO Trevor Blackwell (quoted in the third section of the article) is also one of the Y Combinator co-founders, and I believe both companies are in the same office building.

RiderOfGiraffes lists some relevant HN items here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1562602

Reply on news.ycombinator.com