Now that Google has become the leading developer of robots, including humanoid robots, we can leave them to do all the unpleasant, dangerous, and boring work. Robots have moved out of the factories, and into the mines, fields and skies.

Google’s drones watch over traffic and crops, and are contracted to law enforcement and local authorities. In Africa, the drones keep tabs on endangered rhinos, calling in air support when poachers are spotted. In Boston, they deliver fresh produce from eBay; all the while mapping out the city’s landscape for updates to Google Earth.

Autonomous vehicles have revolutionized mining and logistics, from mines in the Australian outback to the shipping terminal in Rotterdam. The mines use driverless dump trucks to load and dump the ore, all controlled by a wireless network.

An early leader in automated logistics, Euromax Terminal Rotterdam uses automatic quay cranes to unload the ships, and driverless ‘chariots’ to move the containers from the quay to the stack. With infra-red vision the robotic vehicles can work day and night, without a coffee break.

Agri business also has taken on a ghostly workforce, with satellite guided tractors ploughing vast fields in the dark, and drones patroling fence lines and rounding up the cattle. No wonder cowboys are a dying breed! Now they ride shotgun on joysticks and screens.

But Google’s move into humanoid robots and machine learning has proven to be sheer genius. Need someone for search and rescue, cleaning hazardous spills, or serious waste management? Let Google Droids do the dirty work. It’s what they’re made for.