Uber Freight?! What is this madness?!?!

Go and ask them. But I guess they don't fall over. Never did for me. If they do, there is a guy on the floor overseeing this and picks it up. Let's say one man overseeing 4 forklifts.

 

The OnGuard on my truck likes to hit the brakes randomly when i go under a bridge and shadows. If they cant fix basic sensor issues, people will get hurt.

Ever have you truck randomly slam brakes during snowfall? Not fun.

Two driverless vehicles get into a wreck, who's at fault? Lot of questions need to be addressed. My opinion.

 

Uber Freight is a BIG disappointment. It's just another cheap broker. I thought they would connect us to shippers for a small transparent fee!

 

I'VE BEEN UBERED!!!

 

Got an enthusiastic phone call from a guy claiming to have had 10 years experience driving a rig. he was an Uber rep wanting me to sign up. Sounded good and so I am going to sign up.
I came to the forum to see what others have experienced LATELY. The stuff at the beginning is from MAy and is outdated.
It seems like a mixed bag and I am not put off.
I am going to sign up and see how this goes.
At the moment all they have is dry van and reefer out of Texas. I write from Texas at this moment.
I am often in Texas.

I see this as just a single tool in a bag of tools. 10 tame brokers, a good load board, CH internal loadboard, Truckerpath. Personal contacts etc etc.
I do not think it should be ignored or poo pooed. The idea is extremely good. There is another company called Direct Freight that I am going to try and we'll see how Truckstop @ $149 a month works out before dumping it in favor of DAT Edge and a savings of $49.
I am experimenting.

 

I had so called "Onguard" as a Crete driver.
That thing is LETHAL. It is not a safety device it is the exact opposite. It gets splashed with RF and it slams on the brakes. Usually under bridges. The plate at the front gets covered in ice and it kills the cruise. It is the biggest piece of junk that has conned the most number of large trucking companies out of the biggest amount of money since the beginning of trucking.

I was very worried about driverless trucks putting me out of business. Then I stopped and applied my electrical engineering skills into analyzing what was truly involved. (Yes that was my previous life).
Here is what I came up with.

Eventually driverless trucks will come. Not in my lifetime though.
How is a truck going to guide itself down an interstate (let's stick with the easiest scenario)??
Cameras? Radar? GPS?
Yes of course but they are all terribly fallible.
So how do you do it?
Simple. A cable will have to be installed on every interstate . It can be placed under the tarmac - in which case it will be damaged and disturbed. OR it can be placed at the side of the road - where it can be damaged or disturbed.
All road works will have to be geared up to install temporary guide beacons to stop a driverless truck plowing into them.
Another method would be small guide transceivers placed down the side of the road - where they can be damaged or disturbed.

In short the cost to infrastructure rivals the electric car dilemma.
When I joined Motorola in 97 the hot topic was Iridium. Very hush hush. Once I understood that it was all about an individual satellite direct handheld I told anyone who would listen that it was bovine manure. A REALLY stupid idea. You would need a Lara Croft backpack and hump a car battery with you to have the necessary power. I was a fool apparently because all the Motorola scientists had figured it out.
In the finish Motorola deliberately crashed quite a number of the 26 satellites it had paid a fortune for into the ocean 'cos it was too expensive to keep 'em up there. Finally they sold what was left of this stupid disaster to a British company for pennies on the dollar. Guess what? Motorola isn't in business anymore.
Hello Moto turned into goodbye Moto.

DON'T LET SO CALLED EXPERTS DEVALUE YOUR COMMON SENSE.
The laws of physics still apply. There is no free lunch and all this applies to miracle robots driving trucks.

I am sorry but one truck with beer on it trundling down from north of Denver is nothing short of a publicity stunt.

 

Next:-

Then we get to the nitty gritty. The people who run this country - the insurance companies - have zero actuary tables to be able to price this thing out. Why? Because nobody has done it before. They will want astronomical sums to get this off the ground. Until the body count goes up and they develop some statistics the cost of insuring a robot truck is going to go through the roof.

How about legislation?
How would you like to be the politician that runs on a platform of scrapping social security? How long do you think your campaign will last? Not long.
So how would it be if you decide to be the idiot politician who wants to blare to the world that you are the guy who wants to run through a bill to give robot trucks free reign. You know, so that you can put thousands of YOUR constituents out of work or kill their businesses??
Very attractive.

 

Yes still pounding on.

How much are these trucks going to cost?? The same as a conventional truck??
NO !
A mint is what they will cost.
How many truly automated warehouses have you been into??
I've seen a couple. I especially remember a canning place in Ohio. Fully automated with robots (running on tracks).
Humans job? Oil the robot.
The tech has been around since forever to fully automate a warehouse but it isn't done because it is a ground up endeavor. You don't go into a warehouse built in 1905 to handle horses and suddenly have robots running it for a song! NO ! The place is designed around the concept. Costs a fortune.

So finally I get to the end.
Automated trucks are coming but not anytime soon. It is cost prohibitive in oh so many ways. The legislation is going to be a nightmare. Insurance will be a huge road block.
AND
The technology is nowhere near ready for primetime.

My job is very, very safe.

 

My apologies for those long posts but this subject has been peeing me off for a long time. It is an unnecessary worry. Can we now return to talking about Uber because frankly it is a lot more important as opposed to some scifi fantasy bs.

 

Might wanna quote what you are talking about @izifaddag It will make following what you are saying a bit easier.
As to signing up with UberFreight.. It costs nothing but a few minutes of time, and while I'm skeptical it will ever be a low rate load board, I've been wrong before. Sign up, and let us know your experience if you do find decent paying loads.