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

Well, the problem is that as technology progresses faster and faster, what used to be jobs that took some brain and skill become menial labor as more and more robots take more complex jobs. It's all well and good for you until they replace your job, then perhaps you'll feel differently.

It's not about whether or not progress is good, or whether or not jobs should be replaced, progress will happen and jobs will be replaced regardless of how anyone feels about it. All we can do is react and deal with it to the best of our abilities. However, know well that some Pigs are more equal than other pigs in this Animal Farm, and dogs will never bite the hand that feeds them.

It's a Brave New World, they have fantasized and prognosticated about this future for hundreds of years and now we are right on the cusp of what is likely to be tremendous upheaval and disruption before there is a new equilibrium.

Until then, we just might want to become familiar with 1984.

 

Sorry, but to be perfectly blunt, you could not be more wrong, however, you are free to stick your head in the sand until your job is automated.

Seriously, I guarantee you the guys driving the mine trucks in Australia said the same thing five years ago. Now they are out of jobs and there is one guy running ten trucks from 1,000 miles away. If you don't think all of that time is not being spent perfecting the technology for use on the highway at light speed, then like I said your job will be automated soon enough. I'm sure it will be quick and painless though since you never saw it coming. Good luck with that.

And if I sound a bit snarky it's to get the attention of people like you and others you continue to insist this is not happening as fast as it is. You are wrong and you need to prepare for it before it is too late.

However, ignorance is bliss, I get that, so good for you.

 

Yeah this is going nowhere for several generations. Just like above comment about pilots on commercial airlines. Think they have a high turnover rate at trucking companies? Added expense to truck therefore the whole nation since it depends on trucking. Plus, wait until they tell a real "driver" he cant touch the steering wheel!!!!! Yeah right.

 

I like to know when everybody is the USA is out of work, who is going to buy all the stuff the self driving trucks will deliver? They slowly taking jobs away from the USA by moving factories to other countries, now they are going to fire most of the truck drivers, tomorrow they will have some machine to cook our food in restaurants and so on.

 

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I disagree rather strongly with you.

Though I think self-piloting trucks are -somewhere- in the future, I don't think it's quite as quick as you may think. Yes, they're licensing things for tests for companies like google and what not. That's a handful of cars out of multiple-millions. Yes, our manufacturing capabilities could put out enough of these self-driving cars that everyone could have one in 10 years, but, what people don't think about on a lot of this stuff is whether or not people want them.

And not everyone is going to want them. As mentioned, a plane is capable of taking off, flying a route, and landing entirely on it's own today, but there is a reason we keep a pilot and co-pilot in the cabin anyway. In catastrophic emergency situations, we still believe our abilities and judgment far more complex (because they are) than a program and computer.

Truly self-driving trucks that require NO one to sit in the drivers seat are years and years and years off. Planes have had the ability to take off, fly, and land themselves for years now, but we still have pilots in them.

What you have to remember is those mine trucks operate in an incredibly controlled atmosphere. The conditions in which they operate are much more akin to a locomotive than a truck. Very determined, limited routes, more centrally controlled and monitored traffic. It's repetitive and has far fewer variables than a tractor getting from LA to Portland, Maine. Whether you, or I realize it as we are doing it, the truck driver is making numerous and numerous judgment calls on input that is constantly changing. And although technology is gaining momentum with smart-cruise control, lane-tracking, etc., it's a long way off from doing it on it's own.

Am I so naïve as to think that automated trucks and cars will never happen? No.

Am I so naïve to think that automated trucks are going to be here in even 5 years, 10 years? No.

And if I sound a bit snarky it's to get the attention of people like you and others who continue to insist this is happening as fast as it is.

Not to mention, if you're a fleet driver pulling a van, yes, your driving job is on the chopping block first.

Call me a prick saying this, but, if you're pulling a van, you're working, on the whole, in the least skilled side of the industry. Pulling a van is not specialized nor does it require the same specialized knowledge as piloting a lowboy, tanker, etc. Pulling a van requires much less interaction with the load and truck to do the job safely.

And that's the thing, I see lots of people talking about the automated trucks coming at an enormously fast rate. Well, if you're pulling a van, I understand that. You realize, on the whole, your job doesn't involve the same skill and, frankly, education in our industry to do it.

As automation has come, it's always been the least complex jobs that have been automated first because they require the least amount of programming to get a computer to handle.

If you think that all trucking is the same though, if you think pulling your van or reefer compares to pulling a lowboy, a hazmat tank, etc., frankly, you're speaking out of your ###.

 

We must remember that when we are talking about automated cars and trucks and looking at their track record; what we are seeing is a few vehicles. A few vehicles that are heavily maintained by the people that built them. Think of how hard it can be to fix a truck these days. Sure if the actual Freightliner engineers looked at it they could fix it in a few hours. But those guys are few.

The Google car uses 3d mapping and has driven in the same area for the majority of its miles. Basically, when I read about it, it's kinda cheating or at least gaming the news to make it seem more incredible than it is.

So while I do believe that automation is coming, I don't believe it will be in the next 5 or 10 years.

There is also the political issue to look at. Remove drivers and you kill truckstops, road side restaurants and many motels just to name a few. Doesn't the governor of Tennessee own Pilot or something? Do you think that guy wants to see this? And all it takes is one state to outlaw it.

 

It's coming but it won't happen in our lifetime, I assure you.

 

I have seen jobs be eliminated. I'm not afraid. At one point horse and buggy drivers were so afraid of loosing their jobs that they would back into the radiators of trucks. My point is you don't seen millions of PR out of work because we have trucks instead of buggies. In the same way we will continue to have work for humans for many many years to come. Maybe I'll have to learn a different trade.

 

Again, there is a big difference between private property and a public highway.

Ports? Mines? Cornfield harvesters? Walmart DCs? Sure. You get hit by an automated truck on private property, somehow that's your fault for not looking.

First time one of these automated trucks hits a soccer mom who tried to beat the light (because that NEVER happens,,,) guess what's going to happen to liability?

They're already running into programming issues because every day a human has to make a judgment call to do the "wrong" thing when circumstances dictate. Somebody changing a tire on the shoulder: do you stop, swerve into oncoming traffic, hit the disabled car?

 

Also I should add: if I'm really lucky the level of automation should increase as I get older and my skills begin to decrease.

If I can punch a clock at 80's as a ride-along systems tech just to observe the blinkin lights then by then that's fine with me.