UPS has secretly been using self-driving trucks

Discussion in 'Experienced Truckers' Advice' started by TankerP, Aug 18, 2019.

  1. Rubber duck kw

    Rubber duck kw Road Train Member

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    I was promised flying cars when I was 6 years old reading a popular mechanics magazine, now, WHERE THE #### is my flying car? The first time one of your "dwiverwess twucks" falls down the mountain into Denver what do you think happens, I'll tell you, the company who owns the truck gets sued to oblivion, the company put it together gets sued, the company who wrote the software gets sued, and there's a lawsuit worth a few hundred million at least, this will happen because there will be no driver to pin all the blame on.
     
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  3. Brandonpdx

    Brandonpdx Road Train Member

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    That has to be one of the main hurdles to this idea as far as the oligarchs of the trucking industry are concerned: how the heckety heck heck do we dodge the liability for the carnage and twisted metal that (probably) will ensue after we have fired all the drives and can't blame it them any longer! "######! we were all supposed to be so rich(er) after this!!!"
     
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  4. iceman32

    iceman32 Medium Load Member

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    Well a Boeing 747 today is $360 million compared to a $200-400k autonomous truck.

    The biggest blindspot that these new autonomous engineers are not focusing on is the truck wiring and computer wiring.

    Truck actuator goes out, it can cause ALOT of problems more than a simple fuse going out.

    Wire touching metal will cause the truck to suddenly turn on and off while driving. Is the autonomous computer wired directly to the main power? Because that’s stupid!

    The day will come when I wake up and the first thing I see on the news is “Driverless truck causes 100 vehicle pileup”. I can already see it.
     
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  5. Rubber duck kw

    Rubber duck kw Road Train Member

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    The next headline will be "trucking company x, truck manufacturer y, programming company z, and programmer S for sucker sued for total of 500 million dollars," when there is nobody else to blame everybody down to individual programmers WILL be sued, and all the blame will end up at the programmers feet.
     
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  6. starmac

    starmac Road Train Member

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    Lawyers will probably be extinct before these ever get into full scale use.
     
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  7. WildTiger1990

    WildTiger1990 Heavy Load Member

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    Yeah you can get sued autonomous trucks, but imagine how many years it will take to figure out who will get punished for what. So I don't really see how that will stop autonomous trucks from hitting road
     
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  8. 338-Dark-Knights

    338-Dark-Knights Light Load Member

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    I thought we'd be exploring the astrobelt by now. At least Mars, on foot. But, what do I know.

    I think we're all getting wrapped up with the driver-less truck being capable of preforming everywhere, all the time. I don't believe they will put this to the test, yet instead, fill areas to better offset their pool of available live, warm bodied souls to profit from more 'critical' or 'exceeds expectation of available tech to preform it's intended duty'; ie.: Snowing during the Flagstaff to Dallas run with doubles. I think that same run w/o a live driver during the snow would obviously hold down the seat, but the driver is ultimately going to be used for those lanes that need special attention. What about seeing what's going on under the hood during a breakdown? Pre/Post trip? Swinging doors/opening valves... ? Washing your window or for that matter the sensors/LIDAR/radar cleaning? Still so many questions.
     
  9. Fold_Moiler

    Fold_Moiler Road Train Member

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    Cool, now let’s see it do some construction #### and back down a two mile winding driveway through the woods pulling a lowboy.
     
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  10. Brandonpdx

    Brandonpdx Road Train Member

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    That's all BS. Nobody even went to the Moon. (Go down that rabbit hole if you dare)
     
  11. Trucking in Tennessee

    Trucking in Tennessee Road Train Member

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    As I am driving Penske rental with all that crap I can tell you it will be years before it's perfected. Going into a tight on ranp turn it saw a construction barrel and the collision light lit up. Stupid truck. It has adaptive cruise. It gets within 400 feet of anything and starts slowing down. It tops hills and loses 2 mph, sometimes a lot more for no reason. And the side avoidance is maddening. After 4 hours you just don't even care and let it buzz.
     
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