We are still in %20.
The first elevators were manually operated and needed an elevator operator, which required some skills. Most elevators were controlled by a large lever that regulated the elevator’s speed. Operating such a lever required a good sense of timing to make sure the elevator would stop at and be aligned with the right floor. Accidents would happen frequently. Hurried businessmen would sometimes try to jump onto the car, but would end up falling. There are newspaper articles of people being pinned by the car or being wedged between the lift and the door. No wonder being a liftman required safety training.
The first automatic elevator was installed around 1900, but it took almost fifty years before it was adapted and the public became comfortable using it.
Similar to the elevator operators, it is the bus, truck, and cab drivers who start to feel the pressure of new technology threatening their jobs. Maybe it was this fear that drove some people in Arizona to harass and attack self-driving cars in 2018, harkening back to the Luddites that destroyed textile machinery during the industrial revolution to alter technological progress. Once again, it seems like the protests are futile and that humans are losing to the machines. And once again, the new technology promises to be safer, more reliable, and more efficient.
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