When I said dig ditches or collect garbage I was refering to the backhoe operator and the garbage truck driver.
I could see an automated backhoe that would require nothing more than to be brought to the site and programmed with the size and location of the ditch or hole to be dug and the place to put the excavated material. The backhoe would do the rest. As a bonus it might be able to detect buried obstacles through appropriate sensors, and stop and alert the humans commanding it before doing something like cutting through a utility line.
Automated driving on a road peopled with human drivers is probably a ways off due to liability issues, but I could also see a robot that could identify rubbish and trash cans, pick them up, and put them or their contents in the truck whenever the truck stopped.