Autonomous Trucks

Says the guy typing on a internet forum with a laptop connected to a cell phone wifi hotspot in the middle of nowhere from a truck.

Well, at least that's what I'm doing anyway. Wasn't too long ago this was impossible too.

Found at least three fully automated flight testing programs going on. Darpa Alias was probably the most realistically advanced one, as that's just an add-on kit to an existing airframe. We counting the ride along test pilot as a passenger if he never touches the controls?

 

It's the Michio Kaku approach "take 5 times the mass of the universe, compress it to 1% of a singularity, and then accelerate it to 8 times the speed of light and we'll have driver-less trucks."

NOTHING is anywhere close to even moving the first pilot-less airline passenger by air, highly automated for decades, yet driver-less trucks are right around the corner. All the widespread introduction of automation has done for the airline business in 50 years is cut flight crews from 3 to 2. In the same time-frame airlines have gotten aircraft with much longer ranges and they staff TWICE as many pilots as 20 years ago to fly them. They have senior crew for takeoff & landing and a cruise crew to watch the automation during cruise. The automated air traffic control does nothing more than "email" a clearance to SOME airliners' flight management system for review and acceptance by flight crew and SOME airports in Asia. The big revolution in ATC is "texting" versus talking, not controller-less rooms directing airliners.

A test program, just like a PR announcement is not the same as replacing pilots or truck drivers. Like flying cars they are ALWAYS just around the corner, ALWAYS.

 

And the computer will never speed , no matter how big of a hurry you are in.

 

Hazmat load that wrecked in West Memphis last week , could have killed most of the city. They need to rethink pushing this. The fleet of Google cars , each avg a wreck every 18 months . How long would your boss keep you if you wrecked that often?

 

What is scares me at most it's how many blood suckers going to be unemployed. Highly automated truck can send information about axle weigh, any mechanical problems,. All POE, DOT, CMV enforcement will shrink almost to zero. Who will feed'em?

 

I worry about driver-less trucks like I worry about The Zombie Apocalypse. I don't. Until it happens it's only a theoretical possibility. Lots of money spent, lots of people working on it, still a theoretical possibility.

 

You're sitting in the back with the ladies watching the game with a ####tail. Why would you be in a hurry?

 

I looked at that as the bright side of the situation.

btw, you forgot dispatchers, recruiters and safety. They all go out the door too.

 

Self-driving (no human allowed) trucks are a flight of fantasy....

Think about it....

Why dont we have self-driving ships?....that can criss-cross the VAST OCEANS with ZERO POTENTIAL HARM to a single human across the 7 seas, till destination?

Why dont we have self-driving planes...what all they do is zip across the airspace with ZERO RISK POTENTIAL of hitting a "4-wheeler" up there in the air?

The liability risk of 100% self-driving (non-human) truck is too high for such vehicles to be unleased on the highways.

Stop stressing, keep on driving

 

Everytime this "autonomous / self-driving / OTTO" discussions come up, all I see truckers saying is ....