Nearly all construction and mining operations are intricate enough to require an operator on each machine, but in all honesty, who wants to run a dozer for 12 hours just backing up, dropping the blade and pushing another load down the hill. Monotony will get to all of us whether its push after push, pass after pass across a field, or mile after mile down the highway. I can see the benefit in not having an op that could fall asleep at the end of a push and over the edge he goes. I thought I would love to run a dozer for a living, but after digging a few ponds, repetitive work will dull anyone's senses to the point of becoming accident prone.
I watched a video where mine haul trucks are being refueled by a robot. The driver now doesn't have to get out of the cab and results in a quicker refuel with less chance of operator injury. On a spring day, he might enjoy getting out of the cab to refill but what about when its ball freezing cold and the steps are iced over or hot enough to burn.
There will still be many jobs a robot or automation will never be able to replace (repair, machine rescue, assembly, etc.)
I don't like anything with a computer but I can definitely see their benefits. I have been pushing a customer to install a GPS auto guide on his self propelled hay cutter to maximize each pass instead of overlapping or missing crop.