[aintnoprophet]

That may be true in populated areas. But, what about areas that lag behind? Rural america that is too poor to afford robot trucks. I see people hanging off garbage trucks all the time in the midwestern low pop and rural areas.

[kerkeslager]

> But, what about areas that lag behind? Rural america that is too poor to afford robot trucks.

The robot trucks are cheaper than the humans that operate the non-robot trucks, so your argument doesn't make much sense here.

[nogabebop23]

>> The robot trucks are cheaper than the humans that operate the non-robot trucks

not if you understand accounting. I can hire a guy today at <$20/hr operating cost to do it manually. That robot truck is a much more significant capital investment that will amortize over 10+ years.

[kerkeslager]

1. Loans: it seems you've forgotten these exist.

2. Private garbage collection companies: just because a municipality doesn't have money to buy a robot truck in cash, doesn't mean the private garbage collection company that serves most of the surrounding municipalities doesn't.

3. If you actually look up the prices, the numbers are so skewed in the favor of automation that even without loans or private companies, I very much doubt there are any cases where this would take 10+ years to amortize. Your $20/hour collector translates to $30K/year if they works 30 hours/week, or $300K in 10 years. Is it your claim that robot trucks cost $300K more than non-robot trucks?

[z0r]

Need some evidence for that.

[kerkeslager]

[1] https://www.commercialtrucktrader.com/Garbage/trucks-for-sal...

[2] https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/garbage-collector...

Keep in mind a truck lasts for years, while a truck driver has to be paid yearly. I'm not figuring in maintenance costs for the truck here--if you'd like to argue that yearly maintenance costs for the truck are the same as the cost of the truck, I can look that up too, but I'm hoping you are a reasonable person.

[xwdv]

Robot trucks are perfect for those areas; cheaper, faster, better.

[nogabebop23]

You're welcome to personally finance south pedoka county's multi-million dollar purchase of robo-garbage trucks. oh, and figure out how that garbage collector can now support themselves.

I realize this runs against the reality of HN, but not all solutions are technology, and not all technology solutions are as simple as "just do X". It's like the "dropbox is just ..." meme turned up to 11