The algorithm was written in such a way that all workers were able to consistently maintain a high work speed. If they did not keep up, they would automatically receive warnings, retraining assignments, or simply be fired.
"From the perspective of the user and corporations, the efficiency of the system is convincing. The only question is whether society has reached the point where efficiency begins to have a bad effect on people," says Frederick Lane, an author of books on technology and law.
Freight transportation
Monitoring and automation are also coming to the trucking industry to compensate for the lack of experienced drivers and rising insurance rates.
Data collection will help make travel safer, and it will also provide compelling evidence for algorithms to replace drivers. Experienced drivers, for example, know which street to take and how to approach a building's loading dock. This may seem like a small thing now, but it will be important in an "autonomous" world.
Since 2017, the US government has required commercial trucks to be equipped with an electronic data recording device (ELD). It allows drivers to be monitored: it limits the number of hours a trucker can drive and checks whether they are taking the required sleep breaks.
ELD
ELDs are also a great source of data for logistics, insurance qatar number data companies and autonomous vehicle developers, Sankar said. Data from ELDs includes routes, driving time, distance traveled between breaks, and how drivers brake and accelerate.
The data helps fleet managers understand how good a driver is, and determine the cost of insurance based on the employee’s driving skills. Progressive Insurance already offers lower insurance rates for truckers who agree to send data from an ELD.
Another way to monitor and analyze driver behavior is through surveillance cameras that simultaneously watch the road and the driver, recognizing emotions. Some transportation companies are experimenting with heart rate and sweat sensors, but Sankar says drivers are unhappy with being watched so closely.
By 2040, other sectors will catch up with logistics and freight transportation, and monitoring will be more detailed. For example, an employer will be able to check whether a remote worker is looking at a work computer screen for most of the day.
In fact, some programs already track office workers in the same way they track truck drivers.
Big office data
Monitoring to optimize workflow is becoming increasingly popular in offices. One such application is Crossover Worksmart for monitoring remote workers. It tracks keyboard activity and application usage, and takes screenshots and photos from employees' webcams every ten minutes to create a "digital timecard."