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| - Misleading: VR-controlled restocking robot video was shot in Japan, not in Canada or Philippines
In the clip, a worker can also be seen wearing a virtual reality, or VR, headset, remotely controlling the robot.
The post claims that the store is located in Toronto, Canada, and the remote robot operator makes “$3.75 an hour.” It has gained more than 41,000 likes and 5,700 shares.
Another video showing the same robot and the same person was posted on YouTube on July 8. This post is tagged to the U.S. city of Los Angeles while the male voiceover in the clip claims the robot was controlled by someone in the Philippines who earns “$3.75 an hour.”
“Imagine someone in Manila earning less than your morning coffee, guiding a robot in Walmart,” the narrator says. “As the U.S. minimum wage climbs, companies are like, Hello, remote workers.”
The minimum wage in California, where Los Angeles is located, is US$16 an hour. In Ontario, where Toronto is situated, the minimum wage is currently C$16.55 per hour but is set to increase to C$17.20 in October.
However, these claims are misleading.
The video of both the robot and the person wearing a VR headset was taken in Japan four years ago.
A Google image search found that the same video appeared in a news story published by Time Out Tokyo in September 2020 about FamilyMart, a Japanese convenience store chain, and Telexistence, a Tokyo-based robotics start-up, doing a trial run of remote-controlled robots.
According to an August 2020 press release from Telexistence, also known as TX, the robot — called Model-T — was designed for the retail industry.
“In this trial operation, the pilot logs into the robot using a VR terminal from the TX office in Toranomon to remotely operate the Model-T installed at the FamilyMart Toshima Ecomusee Town store (Toshima-ku, Tokyo),” the statement said.
A report by IT Media, a Japanese tech magazine, also said the operator was at the then Telexistence office in Toranomon, while the robot was placed in a FamilyMart store in Toshima, more than 7 km away from the office.
In August 2022, Telexistence announced plans to install a new version of the beverage restocking robot, TX SCARA, in 300 FamilyMart stores.
According to Kyodo News, convenience stores in Japan are facing a significant labor shortage. Nearly 12% of some 55,000 stores nationwide have to shorten their business hours, it said.
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