Self Driving Trucks ARE HERE... Licensed in Nevada.

I beg to differ, your writing says otherwise. Numbers may not be your game, but you are obviously gifted with language and persuasion.

In the late 1800's and even the early 1900's more than 50% of the population in this country were directly involved with farming. Now, less than 2% of the population farms. We found ways to put those people, half of our working population, to work. And we grew our economy at least 15 fold. Yet, we would not be able to put a couple of million truck drivers to good use in this society? IF the automated truck ever comes to pass?

Locally, high end manufacturers are screaming for skilled fabricators and welders. Unemployment is below 3.5%. A four month stint at the local university getting certified in a couple of welding areas, and you have a 40K a year job, in a place where a 2,000 sq ft house costs just a few bucks over $100K. A two year health physics program nets a 60K per year job with luscious benefits.

 

A four month stint is not going to get you a certification in welding. It my get you a job in your area but not a certification. It ain't that easy. Jobs may be that way in your area, but welding jobs around here are $12-$15 an hour. And that career is more and more threatened by automation also.

I don't know anything about health physics, but not everyone has the personality to work caring for people.

Just saying, there are no easy answers for some people.

 

Health physics = radiation monitoring worker for the Fed nuke research sites and nuclear reactor sites. Basically run the radiation detection and dosage equipment and record employees exposure to radiation.

No bedpans required......

 

Well, with all due respect but I hate to burst your bubble, no one was "given" any job to replace the job in which they were displaced. They had to work to find a new job to stay relevant and useful to a new employer, the same thing that is required of anyone today. There were numerous recessions and even depressions plus the Great Depression. No one guaranteed anyone a job then, no one guaranteed you a job driving a truck until you retire, and I wouldn't want to live in a society that promised to make those guarantees.

Having said that, I am also concerned about what all the people that would have driven trucks will do instead, and since all industries are under intense pressure to automate to compete with third world labor costs. The trucking industry will have to do likewise just to stay in business because, as they say, if they don't someone else will. All you can do is decide how best to deal with the situation, and I certainly sympathies with you. The future looks bleak in many respects.

I really don't know where all the jobs will come from but the roots of what is happening right now were set in motion over twenty years ago when they passed NAFTA. Remember Ross Perot and what he said about that giant sucking sound as our jobs left for Mexico? Well, he wasn't kidding, he was right and that's why they would not allow him to be elected President, just like they don't want Trump to be elected President.

Our country and the world in general is so full our corruption it is disgusting. Tell the truth, I'm more concerned about society holding together long enough for all the jobs to actually disappear. If the economy falls apart the way it seems about to do again soon, then robots won't be our biggest problem.

 

Yes, very good point, how many people really want to stand on an assembly line for 8 hours a day doing the same thing over and over again. The only problem is those people are competing with countries that pay workers next to nothing compared to what they are paid here. The difference between the industrial revolution and now is that we are now in a phase in which productivity is growing and wages are not, and there are too many people competing for too few jobs. That will even out in the long run, it always does, but how we get there and how long it takes may be extremely painful for lots of people. Time will tell.

 

You are hilarious. Are there plenty of truck drivers just waiting to be robotic engineers where you live?

 

I don't have a bubble to burst. I didn't mean that literally they were "given" other jobs. Of course they had to go after them and work towards getting them. But there were jobs available for them to go get. And in our modern more automated world that is no longer the case. And I agree completely with everything else you said after the first paragraph. Spot on.

 

What He Said! VT, I couldn't have said it better myself. Thank you!

 

I'm glad people like you are happy not to adapt to current conditions. That leaves more opportunity for the ones that are.
You will be left behind, when your job is replaced.

 

There is no aircraft that is allowed to fly without a pilot in control - autopilot or not. I don't see trucks being able to operate without a human driver behind the wheel. Sure, we might be able to sit back and let the truck do most of the work. But at the end of the day, there's always going to be a driver in the seat to handle things when the electronics go tits up.