The future of trucking? Self driving trucks?

So was Malcolm Reynolds.

 

“Firefly.” Great show.

 

I welcome our robot overlords.

 

Sign me up to team with one of those for the time being. I'd have no problem with training it to replace me.

 

Yeah

The least qualified drivers are usually the worst ones to have on the road. Who would that be? The typical flip-flop wearing Somali pirates and other assorted import jobs who typically pull Amazon relays or do other terminal to terminal dry van work. They would be the easiest to automate out of a job, and there could be a certain degree of good riddance to that.

The other guys on the chopping block I hate to say it would be the highly paid UPS and LTL linehaul drivers, who often don’t do anything but pilot the truck from A to B. Sometimes they hook and pre-trip their own trailer sets, but at big yards, especially union ones, the terminal workers do that. It’s a pretty cake job for what it pays…so good of a deal they’d better enjoy it while it lasts I bet.

 

For those wondering about the future of trucking, all I have to say is:
Tu hablas espanol? Pero no?

 

Hell I'd enlist in Space Force or whatever it's called if they gave me a Milennium Falcon...

 

As it is, they can barely keep trucks running with all the computer tech involved throwing false alarms about phantom mechanical problems. So how many more sensors and high-tech malfunctioning gizmos will be required for the rig to drive itself? How will they pre-trip themselves? Negotiate a fuel island or a truck stop that's jammed up, because everyone decided to wait out the snow storm? Or will it just drive off the road, because suddenly everything turned into the white line? Black ice? How much will all that technology retrofitted into a truck cost? How about the maintenance costs involved? How about shippers and receivers that are a confusing labyrinth? What happens the first time it unsuccessfully negotiates an on-ramp with a minivan full of kids during rush hour? How will it know that it's been damaged or rear-ended or that it's inner trailer tire blew out 50 miles ago? So many questions... Seems like the entire interstate infrastructure would have to be redesigned first.

It seems like it could be feasible to gain adoption as long as the companies developing this were allowed to burn through billions of dollars just like the AI bubble, without really passing the true cost onto the end-user.

 

Seems like an easy, simple job amd as far as trucking goes it is. Programming a machine or allegedly having one artificially intelligent enough to do what the human mind does as a matter of routine is a tall order. The thousands of decisions your mind makes without you even consciously thinking about it as you're strolling down the highway. Every little thing has to be programmed or learned by the machine. In short, it'll never happen. Them jobs are safe for the next several decades.