Article: Self driving trucks by end of 2020

You keep telling yourself it's going to happen if you want. But let me give you a bit of advice if I may. Don't invest any of your hard earned money in it. History is littered with stories of great ideas that "are going to happen" and then didn't. If you want to safely get drivers out of the freight hauling business, it makes vastly more sense to get the freight off of the highways. Why keep mixing all of these trucks up in all of the other traffic with all of the problem associated with it. It would be cheaper, easier, faster, and safer to build elevated railways similar to roller coaster tracks along interstates, main highways, and current railways and move the freight in freight pods totally secluded from other traffic.

 

That raises another question. What does R2D2 do when they close the highway and there’s no proper parking?

 

Excellent point, 80 was closed from mm 100 to mm 359 in Wyoming for almost 3 full days, the only upside to R2D2 is the company doesn't have to worry about trying to pay it for sitting, but at the same time, where does it park, and what happens when the road finally opens, will it be part of the initial mad rush, that inevitably leads to an accident, or will it hang back a few more hours and let the herd move out.

 

Great points.

Why not get rid of trucks altogether and devise another way of transport?

Driving can't be programmed because it's 70% skill and 30% art. That 30% you can't program into any computer or teach it to anyone.

That's why fully automated trucks will never be.

 

Today’s Pickup: Federally funded autonomous electric shuttles show up in Ohio - FreightWaves


just the tip of the iceberg.

 

Slow moving shuttles on city streets moving at a few miles per hour on a 3 mile course is apples to oranges when we're talking about fully autonomous cars and trucks on highways. A couple years ago they launched an autonomous shuttle in Las Vegas that did a half mile loop at 15 mph. The very first day a semi trailer backed into it because the shuttle didn't know how to move out of the way, or honk at the truck to let them know it was behind it. Simple mistakes at slow speed are one thing, but at highway speeds it's fatal.

 

I agree with what you are saying about speed and such, but the bigger picture might be needed to be looked at.

When slowly it’s being introduced the time will come when it ramps up.


What if all goes well and bus drivers are placed out of work? What will the bus drivers now do? Maybe go into trucking?

how about if taxis and busses are replaced? Where will the drivers go?

not saying anything is coming soon but the possibility is real and trucking has really not recovered since deregulation, sure it has its peaks and valleys but it’s no longer a middle class job anymore, no matter of automated or not.

 

The one issue with autonomous vehicles that nobody is considering is volume. Once they get a system that is acceptable, businesses will exploit it exponentially. The volume of traffic will skyrocket beyond comprehension.

International shippers will exploit ports more if it can be cheaper to hit west coast/OTTO/east coast
or vice versa. The port traffic will be nuts regardless. As if it isn’t bad enough. But yes it will get much worse.

The only solution is drones. But it isn’t viable economically yet. That would be the ideal solution for OTR freight.

 

They are going to drive them in "Last Mile" like drones, mostly from Nevada and AZ.. Imagine a huge office building with thousands of cubicles. It's already being tested and implemented near USA Parkway. That's all I have to say about that.