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

At least when that happens, you won't be 37,000 feet up and over the middle of nowhere.

 

You never know where you'll be when the SHTF.

 

A driver in the seat, possibly reading a book or watching a video?

Being the following driver to the lead truck would be mind numbing if you had to sit there for hours with a view of the tail end of the truck you were following much too closely.

And if the electronics fail there probably won't be time for the 'driver' to react, except to dump a load in a pair of jeans just before they die.

 

AT 37,000 feet there is time to react and correct a situation.
And even jets can glide a bit.

At 65 mph and 20 feet between you and the leading truck, there is no time to react.
The truck just rear ends or goes off the side.

 

There's always a Debbie downer to every joke.

Well from your multiple replies, I get your the person that'll tell a kid their cat was run over by a car, but you'll tell them they were wrong and should have trained their cat better.

 

I still don't think the tech is going to be here in the next 20 years.

5 years there might be some practical applications running, then maybe a few companies might buy in. Let's say a company rolls over its fleet every 6 years, so that's 11 or so years for a company with deep pockets to make a complete commitment.

That's for the first on the block kids, more savy owners will probably wait for 2.0 to see if there's any improvements or if cost comes down. So your 2nd stringer will probably wait a few years to get data from the guys making the initial jump (plus the glut in the labor market will allow them to play hardball with rates! "We still hire REAL drivers! Up to 20 cpm!")

So unless the next dictator in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave mandates the stuff like they did with the DEF systems (even if, it took 8+ years to roll out and you can still buy a glider today!) I can't imagine companies lining up to double the cost of their equipment (the driver is cheaper than diesel per mile!)

So yeah, unless you're fresh out of HS with a new CDL, I don't think many of the current drivers will have anything to worry about in the rest of their career. You're still more likely to die in an accident or from health issues, loose your license or your medical card, or age out than be replaced by a robotruck. Especially if you're over 40.

 

Exactly. The driver will be too relaxed since he has basically nothing to do. They are worried about drivers falling asleep at the wheel,now its gonna be a lot worse when these trucks hit the road. I find it funny that the whole purpose of these automated trucks is because computers,make less errors and react quicker...yet a human is needed to back it up. Kind of ironic.

 

Just so happens I came across this article today:

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...mpany-with-one-line-of-bad-code-a6984256.html

So it's like the Swift Driver of programming? Doug Pinksiegler(DP? Arrow Trucking president)

 

You're = you are.

And no, I am (I'm) not that person to tell my kids that.
I would tell them that the cat died because it was defective.
It could not determine time, distance and speed well enough to avoid getting squashed.

Then I might tell them that the same thing could happen to them if they failed to look before running out in traffic.

 

Well, I was not expecting a reply like that at all. I have nothing else to say.