Autonomous trucks, what if sensor fails & an accident occurs?

Wonder if the drone replicates that feeling you get in the seat of your pants whether it be the road is slippery or you need to feather the clutch...

The thought of "a robot truck will never do mountain, flatbed, etc." is missing one important part. If the demand for drivers overall is pushed way down, all those drivers will go to other markets, over time depressing wages for said jobs...

I agree, the highway system isn't ready. And who is to say the public will even accept them? Lots of other factors surrounding it more than simply "can we actually do it?".

 

That's not going to matter...You are going to stop them..They have the money...They have the control.

I am guessing millennials and the next generation will actually embrace them...I used to be an Uber driver and I can't tell you how many riders got in and really didn't even acknowledge me...I might have gotten a grunt out of them when I said hi...They would ignore me, use their phone, etc....I am guessing these type of zombies are the ones who would like a car with no human being in it to show up and pick them up.

 

I talked to someone in the industry...Someone who helped design the Tesla elcetric car as well as the Tesla/Panasonic solar factory in Buffalo, NY....I have a lengthy conversation with him going over the self-driving technology...They just about have it down...There are actually tractor trailers doing beer runs in Colorado now by themselves...There is someone in the cab but not driving....So I asked him the big question, "When are we going to see self-driving cars on the road? When will it be legal, and socially acceptable where we will see these vehciles on the road ?" Without even batting an eye or hestitating he said 10 years.

 

2 very different worlds when we consider truck vs car

Truck is a commercial purpose. The public has to accept it if they are willing to see autonomous trucks rather than a human. One of these things it will all be good until it screws up or someone hacks it and turns trucks into murderous weapons. Then the cost will be : who pays the large settlement? Will that settlement outweigh the cost of technology- driver wage saved? Or will it be cheaper to pay the human and not buy the technology? The return on investment will ultimately be the driving factor. If a program has errors in it you can expect every vehicle with the same program to make the same error. It would not surprise me if this initially leads to a lot more massive pile ups. I suppose there could be superior communication between the vehicles and tell each other to stop or get off the road well before the scene. Considering humans don't speak to each other on the road. Most connected we've ever been and we talk to each other less and less (directly). Go figure.

As far as the car it is not about roi. It is about is the consumer willing to give up control over the vehicle while riding in it. If they are not, they won't buy it, industry will continue making what the consumer will spend it's dollars on. Nobody can force a customer to buy their product. For this reason i think the tesla version we have now will be the most common. The car will just continue on the roadway with minimal input from driver. There may be an option for it to completely drive itself, but I see that as being an option rather than them producing a car with no steering wheel or controls. Eventually, perhaps. I know I wouldn't be comfortable in that. As time marches forward, the next generation may just accept it as the way things are and consider it normal. Time will tell.

This is without even opening the topic of how autonomous and human driven vehicles will operate on the same roadway during the transition period. If you had everything autonomous it should work very well. The leap from here to there looks like a large leap, to me.

 

Mercedes-Benz Future Truck 2025 | Daimler
So, where should I go in 2 years? Plumbing? Welder ? Electrician.?

 

Im not to worried about it. Id like to see a antonymous truck. Secure a load. Retighten straps and redo bungies when the wind rippes them off.

 

Have you been on I90 turnpike, where trucks running triples, and double 48 feet? They have special places where drivers can drop those trailest.
So basically instead of 5 people running 5 trucks, you will have 1 truck driver who will secure everything , will run .ahead in his truck whith another 4 trucks following him as convoy..and that just 1 example.

 

Yep. When one of them autonomous systems can pilot a tridrive and quad wagon loaded with logs down the side of a mountain in BC I'll start to worry. It definitely won't happen in my lifetime lol.

 

Nobody says that autonomous trucks will be able to drive everywhere. But again out of 10 drivers 7 will loose a jobs...

 

Be interesting to see if it's even allowed.

Ever wonder why they outlawed growing of hemp? Similar reasons. People need something to do. If you put 70% of the what...? 15 million drivers (?) out of work, who are 94% male, how well do you think that will end up? Over time, perhaps. We still need to see the technology price get to the point it makes sense. Also need it to make those human decisions from time to time. Ai has a long way to go still.