For the millions of Americans employed in careers at risk by automation, their livelihood over the next 20 years depends on the rapid acquisition of new skills. What those skills are is a question of interests, goals, and available options.
To be clear, it's not just low skill workers- delivery drivers, machine laborers, and the like- that are at risk. Surgeons will become secondary to robots who can do their job more accurately. Paralegals will disappear as research becomes easier.
But to start with, we can focus on delivery drivers. Even more specifically, those drivers that work at least 40 hours per week at their job- not the part time pizza guys bringing back money so they can play in their band.
However quickly autonomous vehicles do or do not come, these people will need to up their skill sets, and fast.
The first step is understanding their own advantages. What are they good at? What are you good at?
Well, they're hopefully excellent at customer service. These people are personable and quick on their feet. Plenty of problems arise out of the blue in these jobs, and drivers need to solve them quickly.
They're excellent drivers, of course. They understand traffic patterns, can react quickly to changes, and can concentrate for long periods of time.
They're many other things too, of course. And they're a whole lot of skills that their current employment isn't taken advantage of. So somehow, they- likely with the assistance of the tech companies pushing the change and the governments permitting it- need to use those skills to contribute on the next level. It will be much more than just a few new tricks. The old dogs need to learn to be wolves.
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