Totally autonomous trucks driving between Dallas and Houston

Its funny to see small fleet owners looking forward to autonomous trucks.

The “driver problem” is what causes industry fragmentation and allows all these small companies to exist in the first place.

When the human driver is gone along with all the issues associated with it, the entire industry will be consolidated into a few huge players who will cut rates to the bare minimum.

Lack of quality drivers is really the only thing preventing Knight-Swift from putting another thousand trucks on the road to outbid all those smarty pants small fleet owners who are sick of having to deal with drivers.

 

The Automated Intellect Lawyers as well!!

 

Well, the "human driver" will never be eliminated. City P&D is far too complex for that to ever happen shy of burning it all down and re-creating cities to accommodate them. And even line haul I cant see happening. The massive lawsuits that will happen because of these gizmos trying to run in the snow and ice. Between snow covering up the sensors and the trucks themselves not being able to adjust to the wind and road conditions. It just wont be practical.

Under ideal road conditions out west, maybe. But no human drivers at all? Nope. not in my lifetime. But then, Im 66 right now, so Ive only got 40-60 years to go...

 

Well, Ike isn’t the sharpest.

 

I dunno those 15 min cities look a lot more like exactly what you’re talking about.

 

While a lot of these drivers are "BoneHeads", i noticed one thing. When a truck in front or beside moves into the other persons lane, rather than have a collision, wouldn't the prudent thing to do is slow a bit and fall behind the idiot? The old "your not going to get ahead of me" will cause a lot more downtime than the 5 seconds you lose by backing off and just go on with your day.

 

I am pretty sure the most drugged up drivers of all time were the guys in the 70s and 80s running coast to coast on speed and quaaludes

 

I don't remember anyone using 'ludes back in those days. Bennies for sure, and diet pills when you could get them, but 'ludes tend to make people crazy.

 

The only drugs I have ever seen any driver abuse in my short time in the industry are alcohol and a few instances of Kratom.
My point is I dont think its true that drug use among drivers is at an all time high

 

I'm no expert on drug use and haven't been for a long time. Those days have passed me by and that's a good thing.
From what I see on TTR the use of pot is a lot more prevalent than it used to be. I don't know about speed these days. In my work environment there isn't much need for it and I haven't had a driver test hot for amphetamines in several years.
The OTR guys would know more than me about speed.
I have lost a couple of good drivers to pot. They blazed up on weekends and then got picked for a random during the work week. Neither one ever came to work under the influence and I never saw any difference in their work performance. I hated to lose them.
It's a shame but they knew the risks. Until the laws get changed there's not much we can do.