Self Driving Trucks ARE HERE... Licensed in Nevada.

You are absolutely right Prof. Gringo. A lot of people do have their heads in the sand. And I will add that a lot of people actually support this. They call it progress. They actually believe that there are new cleaner, safer, funner, easier, and better paying jobs coming. I wish that was true, but it just isnt. There are no evolving industries that are going to require the numbers of people that need work. Now or in the future. We better start fighting for what we have tooth and nail....because when it's over it'll be too late. Over 7 billion people on this ball of dirt. It's already a crisis how many are uneducated and unemployable. It'll only get worse.

 

Technology hasn't helped anyone --- that's a mighty strong statement. For one, without modern technology, I would personally be blind in both eyes. Instead, I run a successful business with seven employees. So, I can testify from personal experience that seven people are better off because of modern technology.

Technology has greatly improved our lives. It wasn't but two generations ago that this country was in the dust bowl years. People walking behind a team of horses over clay ground, day after day, week after week, until they were just old and broke down before their time.

Truck drivers used to commonly have moderate to severe hearing loss in their left ear from driving with the windows down. Air conditioned trucks have made that a thing of the past. Truck drivers used to commonly have kidney problems; air ride seats and suspensions have made that but a faint memory. Military pilots used to be routinely shot down over enemy territory, now they fly their drones from the base in the US and go home every night to dinner with their families. If I had a choice to sit in a nice, comfortable air conditioned office and direct my truck to it's destination instead of sitting in it, I would do that in a heartbeat, too.

As Warren Buffet said in his latest letter, kids growing up in the suburbs today have a higher standard of living than the Rockefellers did in the 1920's. We don't die from infectious diseases, all we have to do is open a tap and hot or cold water comes out. We don't have to dig a new pit for the outhouse every year. Airbags and better design have saved innumerable injuries, and hundreds of thousands of lives. When our back hurts, we go to a chiropractor and get fixed for a pittance, instead of walking around with it for the rest of our lives. On our farm, we are starting to produce the same amount of fish with less than 5% of the water that we used to use. That means we can produce 2,000% more than we could five years ago, with the same natural resources. Instead of 7 employees, we'll end up with 15 or so. Some of them may have driven a truck at some point.

You are worried about getting your slice of the pie. Technology changes the recipe of the pie, but the pie gets bigger, and everyone's slice gets bigger. It just may be cherry instead of apple......

 

EXACTLY! Plus, Planes CAN reliably fly themselves since routes and all air traffic is directed from the ground and all these years later even with the amount of control in place they still don't trust those systems with people lives. We are FAR from trucks not needing drivers.

 

Accidental trucker, I am going to stop replying to you. For one, you are not getting the point. And you obviously aren't even open minded enough to try to. For two, your reading comprehension is terrible. Or you just arent interested in responding directly. You'd rather twist someone's statements and the reply to that. I never once said technology has never helped anyone. You did. I said it hasnt made anything cheaper. I said much of it now is not needed. I say we are reaching a point of diminishing returns on it. You are going to believe what you want no matter what anyone says, even if your reading comprehension is ever up to the task of understanding what was said. I am happy technology fixed your vision. Thats what technology is supposed to do. Along with many of those other benefits you did mention. What it should not do is put millions of people out of work for no good reason. Have a good day.

 

Technology has never made anything cheaper?

Same argument. What was the price of light to read by at night? We don't even consider the cost when we flip on the reading light today. Two centuries ago, the cost of creating enough light to read or work by for an evening was a working man's average day wage.

Take a look at the article below about the cost of owning a car, comparing 1995 and now. Bottom line? Adjusted for inflation, the cost of a new car has dropped by 50%, and when adjusted for INCOME, the cost of a new car has dropped by 70%. Not counting cost of operation, safety, reliability or durability.

http://www.aei.org/publication/5-ch...-own-operate-a-car-the-good-old-days-are-now/

That's what technology can do for the people. It makes our lives better, cheaper, healthier. Instead of spending money on a car, we can spend it on hobbies, vacation, bigger houses, whatever we want. We can send our kids to college so they can design the next great thing in technology, or heal people with the newest medicines, or even study 14th century French lute music.....

But the autoworkers that lost their cushy jobs and benefits are probably complaining, too.

 

http://www.cnet.com/news/driverless-truck-convoy-platoons-across-europe/

 

Imagine a completely driverless truck. Now imagine a skilled hacker, redirects the trucks path to wherever they please. In reality, you just lost a million dollar load of viagara and condoms.

 

The thing is more jobs will be lost than will be created. Trucking isn't the only target for Autonomy. I just watched a video of a robot breaking down freight and restocking it with speed and accuracy that a team of humans couldn't match.
There was an article last week about how financial institutions are going to be able to trim their workforces by over 40 % by autmation a lot of their processes.
Advances in medical autonomy are threatening the medical billing and coders, pharmacists, and their teams.
The construction field has autonomous heavy equipment governed by GPS.
There are robots being developed that can build structures faster than any human effort possible.

I read another report were in 30 years unemployment could be around 50% in the US alone. I don't buy that number, personally, but I buy into that our lives are going to fundamentally shift and "skilling up" isn't going to work for an aging workforce. So some who is in their 50's or 60's and has been driving for 20-30 years, is going to go school from anywhere from 2-8 years, accrue massive student loan debt unless they can pay for it, then enter a new careerfield successfully?
I quit driving in December after 12 years of driving. Before that I worked as a refinery for 4 years and spent another 4 as a warehouseman and a carpenter. So At this point. Trucking is all I can do to be finacially secure. I can go to school for 4-8 years, accrue student loan debt, and pray that at 50, a company will be interested.
But I follow a lot of career pages and I see the same comment all the time about hiring olderworkers.

"Why would I hire somebody with their best years behind them, instead of somebody with their best years in front of them?"

I kind of bounced all over with this post, and I apologize. I am very fearful for the future. I am not a smart man. I don't have a head for numbers.

 

Well they will need robotics engineers to build and maintain all that stuff. Sounds like a good field to get into.

 

5 Ways to Outsmart the Robots That Are Stealing Our Jobs

http://www.thetruckersreport.com/tr...s-truck-convoy-platoons-across-europe.311634/