The future...

20 years from now there also will be no humans on Mars either. A 3 year journey into space and no return possible? Uh not gonna happen. Just more discussions on it is all that will happen.

 

If autonomous trucks are so close to reality, where are the autonomous trains? 50x easier to automate a train that travels on rails than a truck that doesn't.

I honestly don't think autonomous trucks are going to take off. Still need local drivers because there is just too darn much going on in the cities that I don't think they'd be practical. I can totally see trailers taking out light posts, getting dragged through ditches or over the hoods of cars. God forbid a child or a pet tries to run under the trailer while the truck is idling in traffic or making a turn. At least an alert driver might see them in the mirror.

 

I agree about the trucks. I saw an NBC Sunday morning show all about automation taking everyone's jobs. It was ridiculous. The host asks the nerd millennial guest "where will all 3 million truck drivers go..?" All because the guest had invented a hydrolic computerized driving pedals/steering insert that could drive a truck in a controlled setting. It bothers me that NBC is obnoxiously scaring everyone by gleefully asking this 20-something where will all America's drivers go???

So I agree. One child killed by an autonomous truck and it gets looked at differently . Among a thousand other reasons having to do with cost and infrastructure and readiness. Same people are saying sex dolls are the future of dating. I doubt it.

 

That's the thing. We are so hell-bent on automation that we, as humans, are basically planning our own demise. What's the point of humans if machines are running the show? The world population keeps going up, how are all these people supposed to survive without an income?

 

Oh ya this show went into the guaranteed income idea. Because humans need work to feel fulfilled what will they do? Machines are doing everything now! How will we live with no jobs? Ta-da! The universal free income!

These geniuses never do understand where money comes from and how wealth is created. They think utopia is everyone has free money (from where???).

 

I would hate to live in a world where there are no jobs. I'd probably go insane from boredom lol.

 

It's not gonna happen. Fake news.

 

I agree. They are a long ways off from getting a truck to drive on it's own. It may happen some day but I don't think any of us will see it in our lifetimes, on a large scale. Like has already been mentioned, they can't even get it to work on trains at this point. All a train has to do is go and stop, with no steering to worry about, and no other traffic doing unpredictable things around it.

Other than that, I don't have the slightest clue what the trucking industry will look like in 20 years. There will probably be some big changes along the way, which way will depend a lot on the future political climate.

 

Most likely because of the cost vs revenue factor. An intermodal train can pull as many as 100 cars. The salary they pay an engineer is peanuts compared to what the operation brings in. A driver draws as much as half a truck's profit.

The autonomous trucks will have all kinds of sensors that they'll claim will be able to navigate a corner down to one centimeter, far greater precision than any driver.


As where a driver drives by the seat of his pants, the super learning computers that will pilot these rigs will know the exact mathematics and physics of driving therefore will be able to navigate and back in just about anywhere. They will know every curve and hill on the road from NYC to Los Angeles and will trip plan and drive accordingly to deliver unsurpassed fuel economy and timely delivery. Example: they'll know the exact curvature of a given exit ramp and will crunch numbers like truck weight, speed, and center of gravity to know the highest speed it can take without delivering enough g-force to possibly shift cargo, let alone roll the truck.

They will probably have fail-safe systems that when the technology fails a remote operator will take control of the unit.

 

Technology, large companies and people that sign on to it will change the future. I see it almost everyday, the new entries don't know the difference. The new prefer elogs instead of paper logs, automatics and technologies that decide for them.

Large companies are after their own survival, afterall, what are employees for?