Went to a car wash in Detroit that's fully automated now, no humans in sight

I was driving through Detroit last weekend and stopped at this car wash that used to have like 4 guys drying and wiping everything down. Now it's all robots and sensors, not a single person working there. The whole thing took maybe 3 minutes and cost $12, but I kept thinking about those guys who lost their gig. I get that it's faster and probably cheaper for the owner, but it's wild how fast jobs just disappear without anyone talking about it. My buddy works at a warehouse and says they're testing bots for packing orders now, same kind of thing. Has anyone else seen a place near them just swap all the workers for machines overnight?

3 comments

3 Comments

smith.nancy1d ago

Heard my friend's brother got laid off from that exact car wash chain last month.

susan_adams1d agoMost Upvoted

Hold up a minute - is nobody going to mention that it might not have been a simple layoff? My cousin worked at one of those places for a while and he told me they rotate out crews every 18 months or so to avoid paying out higher wages and benefits. They cycle through new hires on purpose so they never have to give anyone a raise or deal with seniority. The "layoffs" always happen right when people are about to hit that two year mark.

viola_lopez301d ago

Oh man, that checks out completely. I've heard similar whispers about that place.