New t-shirt sewing robot can make as many shirts per hour as 17 factory workers

Post by amelius » Thu, Aug 31, 2017, 9:57 AM UTC

rtpg wrote: post #85

bmcusick wrote: post #2

$0.33 per shirt, anywhere in the world, is nearly as cheap as the cheapest sweatshop markets. I expect most commentary will look at this using a US vs China thing, but I'm more worried about SE Asia and Africa. They need to climb up the development ladder that China's already 1/2-way up. Say what you will about clothing and sneaker sweatshops, but they were a tried and tested method for building up the basics of an i…

considering the low price of the shirts, how do you cover the capital costs of the robots? I'm having a hard time imagining the robots putting out 6 digits-worth of shirts per robot to cover the costs?

Post by zdkl » Thu, Aug 31, 2017, 11:45 AM UTC

snrplfth wrote: post #78

zdkl wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> [...] semi-disposable consumer goods. Because technology got better. In my humble opinion this is the flawed assumption in the line of thought you advance. Technology isn't universally disposable, that depends on the replacability and support structure around any specific source of complexity (edit: and purchasing power) You haven't solved much of anything with automation if the final word is "don't worry how it wo…

> You haven't solved much of anything with automation if the final word is "don't worry how it works, we'll come over and bill you to fix it" Odd, because that's how almost all "automation" in everyday life works. How many people actually understand the operation of, or could fix, their dishwashers? Their cars? Even their coffee-makers? Yet dishes are washed, cars are driven and coffee is made, mostly uneventfully. I…

Post by vorotato » Thu, Aug 31, 2017, 9:15 PM UTC

bmcusick wrote: post #2

$0.33 per shirt, anywhere in the world, is nearly as cheap as the cheapest sweatshop markets. I expect most commentary will look at this using a US vs China thing, but I'm more worried about SE Asia and Africa. They need to climb up the development ladder that China's already 1/2-way up. Say what you will about clothing and sneaker sweatshops, but they were a tried and tested method for building up the basics of an i…