From This Collection

A trip across the country with no human contact

Mar 28, 2012
Fight it if you want, but the robots are coming. Marketplace’s David Brancaccio is embarking on a deep investigative experiment on how robots are taking over. Plus, what is the Instagrammiest Instagram photo?

Taking humans out of the supermarket checkout

Mar 27, 2012
Retail is getting more and more "robotified," and where it's most evident is the self checkout kiosks at supermarkets. Retail clerks are finding themselves displaced by the machines.

Good robots make jobs

Mar 27, 2012
Robots have come a long way -- from factories and into homes -- and jobs for robot makers and minders are on the upswing.

Robots ate my road trip, day three

Mar 27, 2012
Almost halfway through his coast to coast, robot-fueled journey, David Brancaccio has to heat up dinner on his car's exhaust.

Robots everywhere

Mar 26, 2012
From grocery self-checkout to your home accounting software to "Godzillas" working the assembly lines, technology is fundamentally changing the American workforce.

Robots ate my road trip, day two

Mar 26, 2012
An ear of corn almost derails David Brancaccio's misanthropic cross-country road trip from New York to San Francisco.

Robots ate my road trip, day 1

Mar 25, 2012
From man's best friend to the hotel reception desk; check-in on the successful first leg of David Brancaccio's cross-country road trip from New York to San Francisco, which he's attempting to complete without any human interaction.

For public good, not for profit.

Robots, automation, and the future of your job

Mar 23, 2012
Technology is advancing at an exponential rate, and at that speed, computers, automation, and robots are already doing tasks most people did not believe were possible. So what does that mean for the jobs economy?