[to11mtm]

> it’s surely cost competitive to just hire a human to do all those things.

Depends on the service life/performance/etc.

As a simple benchmark, I will propose 'Mowing the lawn with a push mower'. Let's wave hands and assume there is a setup on a truck where the mower can be parked and then lifted in.

If you're paying the people doing that lawn-mowing federal minimum wage, at 40 hours a week it's 15K/year.

After 3 years that's 45K, or a little under the current US median price of a new car.

IOW, if the robot costs 45-50K, but can make it through 4 years without expensive maintenance you are still 'saving costs'.

There's hand-waving on both sides of my equation; At least where I live even pushing a lawnmower gets you a bit more than minimum wage (although it is more seasonal,) and also I have no clue if when we say 'new car territory' we are talking median or an 80K EV.