Automation and the future..

Or it picks up all the drivers bad habits

 

That is the perfect machine for those who have lost mobility, can you imagine strapping in and having complete control of that gadget?

 

Completely autonomous trucks on our existing highway system will never happen on a large scale, at least not in our lifetimes. Tesla is having trouble keeping their cars from killing drivers in self driving mode, and I saw a few weeks ago that a smashed bug on a Tesla completely disabled their self driving system. The potential for huge lawsuits will keep it from ever getting off the ground.

 

I don't think it's ready either. But someone will try and push it to make a buck.

 

That's what Tesla has been doing for the last 3 years with their self driving cars. Yes a trucking carrier will try it, kill a bunch of people and get sued into bankruptcy.

 

you guys should be more worried about something that replaces 100 trucks at a time, rail. There is a lot of new things happening in rail to replace OTR, I can see it happening more than autonomous trucks.

 

Why assume that people will get killed?

I mean compared to some of the idiot steering wheel holders we have in cabs trying to kill people daily (and having a good amount of success), those self-driving trucks may be a lot better.

 

The self driving trucks absolutely will do it much better, but the bottom line is who has the deep pockets in a lawsuit. If a driver kills somebody the plaintiff can get a few million. If a self driving truck kills somebody, they can sue the carrier AND the company who designed the technology. A few big cases like that will bankrupt a company. We're talking billions of dollars. Just like everything else, litigation determines how we live our lives. Courts don't decide guilt or innocence, only who has the best lawyer.

 

But I am thinking that those in power are going to get behind this technology and transportation change and prevent the litigation happening in the first place with either tort reform or limitations on who can and can't be sued.

Right now our legal system is being really screwed over, we are seeing this all boil up with the "Metoo" thing and the suing individuals based on an accusation with no evidence other than the accusation. Eventually this will have to be dealt with because it will get out of hand and abused in the same way the red scare and McCarthyism got out of hand and the government abused people.