Will self-driving trucks be an issue for truckers

The ag tractors are no where near being able to turn them loose in the field and let them run on there own they dont know anything other than what the motor tells it and where it's at in the field like a mud hole flat tire bad bearing if it gets plugged with trash and so many other things same with trucking it's just a tool to make your day less stressful which is what I see it becoming with the trucking industry you will be able to watch other things going on or plug your phone in without worrying about taking your eyes off the road in the rain and will be easy to watch other parts of the truck that needs attention while driving and make it safer for all and less stressful at the end of the day so your more relaxed

 

The ones we learned of here in Arkansas rely on satellite. Once the field is mapped to precise tolerance via GPS to really fine dimensions to where the tractor can get this row or that row a few inches apart... it's relatively easy to monitor it's work as it goes across the field.

I recognize what you are driving at and I appreciate your thoughts, however some of the tractors locally are pretty spaceman stuff and it's really quite something.

You will always need a human to solve problems the tractor gets into or something else now and then as the day goes on. It would be the same with robot trucks.

 

Oh the tractors are years ahead of most of the industries trust me I farm and drive about 10,000 miles a year to move tractors and deliver what was grown but I dont ever see someone not being present in the equipment even with it being able to track within a inch of the same pass even a year later but that cost about 30 grand a tractor after you buy the computer and satellite receiver and all the activations but it's still just a tool to help with efficiency there is more going on around a tractor in the field than on the interstate

 

I appreciate you taking the time to write.

I would imagine against a proper farm such as in our area 30 grand aint but a day's pocket money sometimes. (We have some really large spreads along the I-40 however these were pretty small by some of the even bigger ranches out west.)

In our valley we focus on hay mainly. I think since the cattle herds had some trouble a number of years back in bad winters. You would not find spacey stuff on those tractors. Or on the ones we had on our homestead hay farm back east, maybe 400 acres if that. (Tiny...) with cattle on it.

 

I really do hate to say it but 30 grand is spent faster than you could imagine on my size farm I have to make a few trips to ga this month for corn seed because they are 40 dollars a bag cheaper and that's a little over 50 grand savings just for our corn seed to plant 1/3 of our farm or insecticide that is over 1200 for 1 gallon but we are the only industry that buys everything at retail cost and sells at wholesale has to pay for freight both ways and cant choose what prices we want to sell our product for

 

Robot trucks will make us all unemployed just like we all go to work in flying cars. Nobody knows exactly if this will happen and when. What are you going to do, never get a paycheck because SOMETIME in the future that job my go away?

 

i'm gonna give up eating, cuz in the future, i might get fat

 

We still have engineers on most trains. And they run on rails. There is a reason for that. The public does not trust machines without human oversight, even though, in some cases, machines could do the job far better (trucking is rarely one of those, but rail transport frequently is.)

The public will crucify (in court) the owners of the first few automated trucks to kill people. That will crush any desire for trucking companies to adopt automation technologies. You do not save money if your wallet is bleeding from horrendous settlements.

Is there a place for automated trucks? Sure. Maybe. As others have mentioned, very short runs on low traffic roads, or warehouse truck management are a couple possibilities.

 

Not a lot of thought went into your post, did it?

Tractors are GEO-locked. They’ll never leave the reservation. Nor will the human assistant. Therefor they can run off of satellite.

Trucks will need 5G land based navigation. Human assistants will be required. You think anyone is going to do that for $15 an hour. Do you think that companies can find enough “assistants” to allow the truck to run 24/7? Those robot trucks will require teams to assist, or that they be handed off to another driver within 5-6 hours of starting.

Vast tractor swap areas will be required throughout the US. 1000’s of them, if not 10s of thousands. We can’t build rest areas. But tech will save us all lol

10-12 hours? Spending a night from home? Seriously? Won’t happen unless the special needs class is paid for all hours away from home.

Zero cost savings for the next 3-4 decades.

 

5G is a technology that hangs in a small box on every few telephone poles radiating in a frequency really high upwards. If you added enough electrical power and raised the 5G output you have a military weapon used for crowd control capable of burning below your skin fluids in every human. These things exist. The 5G is still new. It's not everywhere just yet.

There is many things that I think about which does not go into my posts here. I try to keep it short and leave it as it stands regardless of the overall situation. I am against robot trucks on highways and roads for a variety of reasons and there is that. I would not be participating in that type of situation with or dealing with anything related to the trucks.

The USA will need trucks. How they do it is their problem. Not mine. Ive already done my bit. It will be a while before we are forced to deal with them in traffic.