Editorial: Is robotic packer the right move

Linda Hall, Assistant Editor, Hawke's Bay Today. Photo / File

It was inevitable that someone would come up with a solution to the growing problem of labour shortage at apple harvest time.

Orchards and packhouses in Hawke's Bay were crying out for workers to pick and pack their apples earlier this year and now the Bay of Plenty is facing the same situation with its kiwifruit crop.

Next season may well be a different story with a Tauranga company, Robotics Plus, inventing a robotic apple packer that has the ability to handle up to 120 fruit per minute, effectively taking the place of two humans.

I'm not sure how much one of these machines costs but the maintenance compared with a "real person" would be minimal.

No holiday pay, no sick pay, no tea breaks, no excuses for not coming to work. The initial outlay would soon be recovered.

The perfect employee really — all it takes is the flick of a switch and it does its job with no complaints until the switch is turned off.

In years to come will we humans be competing against robots for jobs?

Technology is moving at such an incredible speed that it's quite scary to think about what jobs could be taken over by robots.

Instead of nice smiling checkout operators asking how your day has been at any number of retail outlets, might we find ourselves facing a robotic arm grabbing our goods to scan. No smiles, no conversation.

We humans might just be getting a bit too clever for our own good. If we are not careful, one day it could well be robots asking us to "prove that you are human" before proceeding.