Autonomous Trucks

Nobody can say when and what's coming. It will change our industry, most definitely. But there aren't going to be millions of unemployed drivers. There are tons of legal hurdles to pass. Logistics to work out. Technology to built and test.
OTTOs publicity stunt a few months ago was just that, a publicity stunt.

But if you want stay ahead of the curve, you have to stay ahead of the pack. If you do the lowest denominator driving job, then you might be one of the ones most threatened by it

 

They won't reduce the need for drivers. They will just make the "driver demands" less, thus driving down wages. There will be a human driver in the truck regardless but he will sometimes be watching YouTube videos instead of driving, assuming he is on a very select road with very select conditions.

It's not time to worry about it driver. I'm actually looking forward to being able to let it drive itself across 300 miles of desolate desert. But I won't live that much longer.

 

I've an app for that.
It's a slow process,. You know how it works, 3 steps forward slide 2 steps back. That's on a good day.

 

I think of it this way. Let's take what Elon Musk (owner of Tesla) says as truth - if we have computers driving all our vehicles, deaths will roughly drop by 50%. OK. Now, will the public accept giving up control in order to half their already small chance of dying in an accident? I am not so sure. To put it in trucking's perspective - what will trucking be if there is a machine driving itself? Is there no human to convict and sue and throw in jail when it malfunctions and causes injury/death? If there is a human, will he be accountable if the truck is driving by itself? Is the truck still restricted to current HOS limitations because a human has to be watching it's performance? Will a driver accept the responsibility of whatever the truck does while he is sleeping in the back and not at the wheel? Truck drivers will always earn decent money. That is because if they could earn a decent wage at a factory or otherwise home every day and a lot less liability - most of them do just that.

These are just what I can come up with off the top of my head. I think it will take probably a couple decades to figure out these answers, providing there is not some global event that puts things like autonomous driving onto the far back burner, perhaps a war. I don't want it to happen, but I don't think we can get on the same page (globally) about climate change, currency and trade and other issues that affect us all ... plus, if it isn't over religion or money or power, it will be over fresh water ...energy ... food .... etc. I don't think we can avoid it. All that being said, don't fear the self driving truck. It isn't going to take your job away any time soon.

 

Think it's coming, and when it does, it'll happen quicker than anybody expects. Always does. Just look at all the industries that already have been automated out of existence. I'd figure about ten years most of trucking will be automated. Public won't care, they'll be goofing off in the back of their robot car. If they still have a job that is. If they don't, they won't be on the road anyway.

 

There will always be a driver in the tractor, in our lifetime anyways. Over the last 20 years drivers have been categorized and classified into the low skill labor category, this will be the nail in the coffin making driver jobs minimum wage jobs. Right now pretty much a lot of rookie drivers are the bottom of the barrel type.

Keep in mind in the 60s a cashier at walgreens made enough to own a house and support a stay at home wife and family.

The trucker job will be what a walgreens cashier is now, there wont be anymore select high paying union or private fleet driving jobs.

I have been a manager and a driver for a few companies and the driver is and will always be viewed as the most expendable, don't fool yourselves. Management will view a 20 year vet the same as a rookie mega cdl mill spit out.

 

Sarcasm ahead >>> you've been warned.

I am hedging my bets and buying into the entire idea while looking forward to the time I can pay my drivers minimal wage to just monitor the truck and push a button to pull it over on the side of the road. Much safer than having a steering wheel holder who is listening to the radio, got the cb blaring, with a supersize coke in one hand and a subway 6 inch sub in the other tooling down the highway.

Maybe these autonomous trucks may actually make us money.

 

You know that's a good idea. I was planning on saving 100% of my disposable income for the 5 years prior to retirement. That should last me the rest of my life...Shouldn't it?