Will industry shortage make automation come sooner

It depends they are testing trucks down fixed routes that never change. A completely, fully autonomous truck is a long way off. All we need is one snow storm to cover up the trucks sensors and it wouldn't know what to do. If you bypasses sensors, then every vehicle on the road would have to know where every other vehicle is at. That requires a significant information download and our wireless isn't there yet. I'm sure there's a way to centralize it and have super computers do all the calculating and making sure cars don't hit each other. But I haven't heard of any ideas, which companies will provide all the equipment, space, storage. And you know the pros and cons of centralization. You have everything in one area for better and for worse.

But yeah, we will still be driving even after the fixed routes go automated. And even after that they are probably going to want pilots in the truck in case anything goes wrong. Like the Union Pacific has a certified welder that rides the train. If anything goes wrong, the conductor stops the train and the welder goes to the problem and fixes it.

 

You can already say this about ELDs, people are crying about them before they even had one.

 

A 2 second search found this, and tons more just like it. Putting the driver at fault for inattentive driving.
The crash warning happened 0.49 seconds before the wreck. The auto braking system didn't engage, but

Tesla’s Autopilot lulled driver into a state of ‘inattention’ in 2018 freeway crash

Also, in your 'proof' I didn't see any times other than it was disabled in some of the wrecks. Didn't say for how long the autopilot was disabled. Plus 80% (of 26) of the wrecks in this paper were surface streets. Which adds to my point. Way too much data is cherry picked to "prove" self driving is safer when it's simply lying with statistics

Another example of lying with statistics is the reports stating it's safer per million miles traveled (mmt), .Usually that's a great metric, but in this case it's reporting rates of mmt in conditions self driving works. i.e. Clear, no rain or snow, and 99% of the time on limited access highways vs. mmt for all human driven miles regardless of weather and types of road.

 

When that blasted Bendix Wingman stops slamming on the brakes because it saw a 16' high blasted BRIDGE on the Ohio Turnpike, I'll start giving your argument some credence.

I'm willing to bet money I haven't even earned yet that those auto braking systems HAVE caused accidents and most likely HAVE killed people. But the accidents have been listed as "Driver Error" or "Distracted Driving" on the reports so there is a PERSON to blame.

Those blasted stupid systems are one of the many reasons why I bought my own truck. I do not have them on my truck, I will NEVER have them on my truck. And if they become mandatory on all vehicles, I getting a blasted HORSE AND BUGGY!

I've done a bit of computer tech work myself. And computers are the LEAST reliable technology available. ESPECIALLY when people's lives are in the line!

 

My last year on the road I carelessly had a brand new expensive Toshiba laptop on my bunk. I will never forget that day. I was eastbound on I 40 coming out of K-town about 3 miles from the I 81 split. I had my cruise set and was riding OK. Till some jakeleg cut me off, once they broke that radar beam I had a hard braking event that sent that laptop flying. I was in a new Prostar and that laptop flew so violently it put a small crack in my windshield. The laptop was broken at a hinge afterward and I just placed it in a closet. I hate those dang things as bad or worse as a left lane warrior!

 

So have I. Computers can only crunch numbers. They can only follow instructions they are programmed with. They are limited to the input-output devices attached to them. Computers are incapable of independent thought. Anyone ignorant enough to put a computer into a situation where it uses ONLY computer reasoning with NO backup to solve a life or death situation like this is asking for a major lawsuit!

 

Teslas are Level 3 autonomous vehicles. And not all Teslas have the auto drive feature. It's a $5,000 additional cost. You can rail against autonomous trucks from now until kingdom come, they are coming. And they will be safer than fresh graduates out of school.

 

You think that a computer driven autonomous truck is less safe than a three week graduate from a mega carrier?

 

But they will not be safer than somebody with 6 months of experience, much less several years.

 

Hol' up. Id be willing to say that some new drivers are safer then a computer programmed by an indian that doesnt know their A from their elbow.