Drivers Your Days Are Numbered

Even a train, sitting on tracks needs a person to drive it,
Maybe a slow long haul driverless truck might do, but people would try to wreck it for fun

 

There is a driver in there to take control during inclement weather, during construction etc.

It isn't fully autonomous

 

How practical is this? Won't work in big cities, they can't even get cell service 100% on all the major interstates!! LOL not to mention the previous comment of someone wrecking them for fun...or what about a deer strike? Hmmm

 

Don't be ignorant. The very first Generation truck won't be able to do everything. But each new generation Wil do something more, as more and more data and results are tolled. As the years go by, the tech will get more advanced and companies will have data to figure how these trucks will fit into their business.

 

No one is suggesting that this partially autonomous truck will be capable of handling complex situations like city traffic, at least not for a long time yet. Daimler demo'd a version of this in Europe a year or two ago, and the plan is for the truck to run the show on multi-lane highways, alerting the driver that it needs to hand off control when it's time to get off, or when the sensors can't adequately detect the lane lines. All it will know how to do is maintain its lane and gap to the vehicle in front. If the program goes perfectly, Freightliner thinks it will be at least 10 years before they are ready to roll this out commercially, so I'd hazard a guess that it will be at least a decade after that before the tech becomes widespread, and only if it's cheap enough. Unless there is some major technological leap forward, the driver will still be required for city driving, docking, parking, etc. When the truck alerts the driver that it needs the driver to assume control, if he doesn't within a set period of time, the truck will slow to a stop right where it is.

Will this thing know enough to deliberately ditch itself rather than take out a busload of nuns? Unlikely.

 

As sure as the sun will rise tomorrow this technology is here and is growing.
It is not something of the future that may happen.
It has already past the concept phase.
It is used in mining commercially in a big way already.
Anyone who wants to stick their heads in the sand for the sake of their emotional comfort are welcome to do so.
Just realize that to deny this is for their own convenience changes nothing regarding the fact that this is already here.

 

false click bait title the truck still needs an operator inside but yes on highways it will drive itself.

i like how they still keep pushing the false "driver shortage" myth to push down wages even more.

my god when will the lies end, all the training companies have fully booked orientations EVERY WEEK, economy is also starting another downturn so even more people will come into trucking.

 

Consumer cars first. Then this. Anyone that thinks it wont happen in the next 50 years has been living under a rock for the previous 50 years...

 

Good point Captain.
And in the summer when a station wagon full of family with kids
all tuggin' the air with their arm, --- will the automation put a smile
on their faces by providin' 'em with a short blast from the air horn?

Unless the automation communicates by way of Citizens Band Radio,
I predict a decline in CB sales.
And I think there will still be a need for a driver with a heartbeat
on-board every BigtruckBot. A very important position it'll be, too.
If, by chance, the safer form of transportin' freight happens to be involved
in a major mishap, that's where the driver's position comes into play.
The impact of a mishap would throw 'em under the bus.
Driver error

Technology --- Nuthin' stays the same for long anymore.