How will autonomous trucks affect driver (pilot) pay?

Just don’t accept an autonomous truck when they assign you one. No ones forcing you to drive it give me a regular one or I’ll find another job. When those autonomous trucks start showing up in the news with all the wrecks they’re in we’ll see what happens afterwards.

 

It's not going to happen. Even autonomous cars are displaying problems they can't find solutions to. Which I predicted when they first started talking about it.

One example: remember that bicyclist the autonomous car drove into without even slowing down, killing her? They've made modifications now, so that even if a person so much as sticks out a hand at a crosswalk, the car brakes for it. But how can the car determine someone about to enter a crosswalk, from a prankster or crook learning of that technique and using it to stop the car, while the passengers inside sit helplessly? All they have to do is stick their hand out to make someone's car stop. Could be in the worst part of town. Point is, the computer has no common sense. No subjective judgment about someone's intent. It has no intelligence, it's only a machine made to look like it does.

Another inherent problem: in order for it to work in all weather conditions, day and night, it needs to use a sophisticated type of radar. And several of them. Test vehicles have been made with them. Estimates of the cost: about $160,000 for the add-on technology alone. And that was just for a Chrysler Pacifica. Mass production etc can bring down the cost, but enough to make it profitable for a taxi company or your family car? Not.

Then imagine the cameras needed for a semi. And a driver still needs to be paid to sit inside. Where is the financial benefit to the company, to justify all of that expense? And that doesn't include ongoing adjustments, repairs, problems (think of all of the problems we've seen with ELDs, DPF systems, ABS, etc -- there surely would be even more with this).

A problem specific to just semis: if the idea is a driver could take his 10hr break while the truck drives itself, the truck would of course need to drive itself for 10hrs with no need for the driver's activity, otherwise that's on-duty, which interrupts a 10hr break. Fueling, parking, etc, all would need the driver. The truck can't park itself, so it can't even wait somewhere for the driver to finish his break. Therefore, it's useless for extending the miles a truck can do in a day. The driver would have to be on-duty while it's running. So what good is it, for making or saving money?

It's not going to happen. Even autonomous cars will be very limited in where they go and what they can do.

 

what does driver pay have to do with what pilots get paid.
Pilots are unionized, they have to deal with that system.
Some drivers are also unionized, and they have a system to deal with. Most drivers are not under a union contract, so it is completely up to what you negotiated at sign on.

 

Aint going to happen. States are stopping driverless trucks from entering. The other headache is they are not that reliable yet

 

I think that all the autonomous driving tech that is on the way will really make drivers worse. Same thing happened to airline transport pilots, the guys who fly commercial jets. The jets can actually take off and land via auto pilot. So when you let the computer do all the work, you actually lose some of your perishable skill, be it a truck or jet.

As for wages when the robo trucks roll out en masse, minimum wage to play poker on your smartphone from the bunk. Just like an unarmed security guard who is just there, marking the time away. It's the way the whole developed world is heading, everything that can be automated will be because of greed. The CEO wants a new boat, a bigger McMansion, a corporate jet, etc.

Realize that everyone in the system is worse off than a slave. At least a slave owner provided room and board. Today in this ##### system, you provide that at your expense!

 

Nope.
1. Autonomous trucking ain't gonna happen, as I detailed above.
2. Even if it did, no one thinks it can do anything more than open highway cruising. Drivers with the same skills as today still needed for everything else. Which then begs the question, what good is it? Sophisticated cruise control.
3. CEO pay is propaganda talk, from leftists. You never hear them complain about Hollywood movie star pay, or popular singers, or pro athletes. And if you took 100% of that CEO's pay and divided it among all of the employees it would be peanuts. But a good CEO can generate millions or even billions for the company, making it operate more efficiently and productively, so it can compete better against rivals. Which then can translate to hiring more employees, getting better equipment, and better pay, so they can hire the best employees. Which then makes them more competitive. Look at what Steve Jobs did to Apple. That's worth something.

 

We probably wont have to be worried for many decades.

Autonomous vehicles still need a driver to take over in case something goes wrong, but people can't even pay attention when they have complete control of vehicle so thinking they will be ready to take over when a vehicle drives itself is just plain stupid. Cars are one thing, but an out of control semi is basically a wrecking ball that weighs up to 80,000lb (most US semis) and can take out a building. Distracted driving will grow with the number of autonomous vehicles. Not to mention the lack of actually having to do anything will cause boredom and fatigue resulting in lack of ability to quickly respond.

A human driver can react to events better then a computer can. If something happens right in front of the truck, what will the computer do? Just lock the brakes possibly causing loss of control and a far more serious accident? A human can move to the shoulder or take an off ramp if available and stop safely.

What about weather, hills, and traffic? An computer wont know what wind speed is safe to travel in based on load weight and how would it know where to park if things started to get too bad? Same with dealing with gusts, a human can see trees, etc that block wind and prepare for changes in crosswind. Ice and hills pose similar issues. What about rain and road grim obscuring cameras and sensors? Will the truck stop every few miles to force the driver to clean the sensors? Driving on a wet salty road after a snowstorm can have you using a gallon of windshield washer fluid per an hour due to the constant salt spray obscuring your windshield.

How about following distance? What will an autonomous truck do in rush hour traffic in Atlanta, Chicago, New York, or any other major city, or on any highway when there is a traffic backup due to construction/accident? If it tries to keep a safe following distance then it will end up stopped and stuck in the middle of the highway because cars will pull into any gap big enough for them to fit.

Companies are in the business to make money. People have already demonstrated they can mess with autonomous vehicles by putting stickers on signs or painting lines on a street. What will happen when one of these trucks gets directed into oncoming traffic or worse a building or school yard? Lawsuits will fly, the public will become scared, citizens will refuse to give business to companys using automated trucks so clients will leave, the company's stock will drop. Could cause the company to go out of business if they couldn't recover. It would be a major risk for a company to start using them before they are literally flawless. Truck can't even use GPS to detect road speed limits as they are only as accurate when changes are reported and made and there are still many roads where a GPS doesn't know a speed limit for it.

Most companies wont be able to afford to replace their fleets with autonomous trucks, and no company could do it all at once. Current new trucks cost over $150k and with it being new technology, you can expect autonomous trucks to cost well over that. Even the megas wouldn't be able or willing to replace their fleet in under 20 years. Especially since it would mean loosing money on current equipment. Then if something goes wrong like in the previous paragraph, they are out the money from buying them.

Then you have other traffic to deal with and we all know how cars drive around semis.
There are only 2 ways autonomous vehicles could work effectively:
1. People started to use more commen sense and consideration. This is very unlikely, the population is basically just becoming dumber
2. Or if a vast majority of vehicles on the road were autonomous. But a vast majority of the population will probably never be able to afford them until they become as cheap as a current used car. In 2019, the average age of a car/suv/etc registered in the US was 12 years old, most people don't replace their vehicle if it still works and can't even afford to replace it with anything but another cheap old used vehicle.

 

There is also a VERY practical side here! Let's see what happens when some bored kid plays chicken with such a driverless truck! What about how does such a system deal with a flat tire, getting off the road in a solid stable area! <<Think about this one! These vehicles will be REQUIRED to have graphic up to the minute data on road shoulders and pull-offs. You can't simply put a computer chip in charge and have it follow GPS. (placing devices in the pavement will cost billions to do) How can a computer deal with a badly loaded trailer and there be damage from that pothole that has appeared almost overnight? Such a truck will also have to have an up to date database in regard to speed limits and what about a Red Light?

I spoke about this in the other thread on this subject. At this point, the world does NOT have the high tech to pull this one off. A computer will have to be able to think and reason way beyond its programming. Another problem is the input-output devices. The vehicle's steering and braking will be totally actuator controlled, with limit devices and position sensors. These devices will be in highly critical areas that MUST be checked. It is a moving part. There is this thing with computers and moving parts, these parts tend to wear out. I for one would hate to be anywhere close to a fully laden CMV like this when such an actuator fails, and THEY WILL FAIL.

This type of system is not 10 years away. I don't even think a fully independent system is a hundred years away. A totally safe system that can function like this may never come.