Worried about the future. What to do?

It aint gonna be autonomous any time soon. Otr drivers will always be in demand until they either rewrite the logistical side of trucking and completely change how freight gets moved or they make an autonomous trucks that can go otr. I dont see either one happening for atleast 20-30 years. The first jobs that will become autonomous will be ltl and linehaul guys.dock to dock terminal to terminal type of stuff. And even then thats gonna take atleast another 10-15 years to really work out the kinks. Remeber the autonomous truck that u see still has atleast 1 driver in it. Sometimes 2. We are in no immediate danger. Remeber these engineers are inly engineers , they are not trained in logisitics. They can only provide the tool but they cannot apply it to the industry because they know nothing,about how trucks get mmoved. Its up to the trucking companiea to apply that technology and even when there is autonomous trucks, id say its not going to be very cost effective to apply right away. Dont buy into the hype these tech guys throw out there. This stuff will not happen anytime soon

 

They will probably want Pilot drivers even after it does happen.

I would probably switch over to fixing them when they break down until I am able to retire. Thats my plan B IF it happens.

Its going to take years for the 5G wireless networks to be built out enough to allow across country autonomous driving. My understanding is 5G will be needed. We still only have spotty 4G coverage.

Theres other issues that need to be worked out also.

 

I think shorthaul/regional will continue to be in demand for decades to come. I imagine seeing autonomous trucks running from one interstate exit to another, and human drivers completing local regional deliveries.

 

I still think most of this autonomous trucking hoopla is a ploy to bring in investors to prop it up. YOU HAVA NO WORRIES. Autonomous trucking will likely make up less that 1% of freight transport in the foreseeable future. It will stay on a very small scale for a very long time.
As someone said above we dont have the infrastructure to support it and in so many areas of the country it will likely never happen..Wyoming and Montana and all the other northern states , the winters, 8 months out of the year. Dont believe the hype

 

I've always wondered, how can autonomous vehicles co exist in the road with the most erratic force of nature of them all - humans?

Will the autonomous truck realize that the driver with his right turn signal on is actually merging left onto the interstate, and that he only has on his right turn signal because he's being a ####tard?

I see the right turn signal on as a car merges left to get into the interstate everyday.

things like that, can they program these trucks to realize and comprehend people are being dumb and their turn signal doesn't actually mean they're going to turn right onto the grass?

When I'm in cruise control, my truck freaks out sometimes if the exit ramp is angled where my truck still thinks the vehicle exiting off the turn directly in front of me. So my truck will try to slam on breaks and I'll have to turn cruise control off, because I know the car is exiting, and it's fine, no need to do panic breaking like the truck wants.

It also wants to beep at me and freak out on me when I go through construction zones because it thinks the cones are cars sometimes.

My GPS (not coming from the truck) doesn't know what to think half the time going through construction zones.

You can never have autonomous vehicles and human vehicles co exist. Humans are just to irrational, and I say that coming from a first world country (USA). Don't even get me started on how people drive in many places in the third world, where ZERO DRIVING RULES/LAWS are obeyed.

To make it work you would have to give autonomous vehicles their own lanes on the interstate. And, seeing the nations roads as I drive National, our infrastructure is in need of pretty bad repair as it is so I can't see them spending the money for it.

OP, as a noobie driver (so take my opinion with a grain of salt), I would say if you want to do trucking - HAMMER DOWN!

AI won't replace us anytime soon, unless they replace ALL human drivers. At least IMO.

 

Relax, the sky is not falling,,,yet. Plenty good jobs for years to come. Self driving trucks in the oil field? THAT would be a great video for here, maybe with some clown music dubbed in. Self driving trucks are a ways off, it fills an otherwise slow news day. I think there may be applications for self driving trucks, out in the desert, maybe, but for now, it's much easier to hire unqualified drivers that can pass the pee test to fill the seats. You should have no trouble competing with those ya-hoos.

 

It's not going to happen any time soon.

Those robot trucks are created by engineer weenies who know nothing about trucking. They think logistics is 24 pallets or 48 or whatever from A to B and done in X time. Its not that simple. Never.

Robot is going to get stuck in Cabbage upgrade, blown over in Wyoming, short out in the Gulf Coast, Brick in GWB Bridge crossing at rush hour, require a dozen yard jockeys to get it off the street around traffic. Mash cars at dollar general, get piles of tickets in Botched DOT scaling and blown inspections because there are no human truckers tending and loving on them. Who pays those tickets? Maybe DOT quits enforcing because no human drivers to pick on. Run out of fuel in the Sonora, fall down Donner, screw up California Rush hour.. (Serves them right...) maybe fail to regen, need clutch adjustments, a whole manner of little dealership shop work littering the nation while the embattled trucking robot express fields more calls than he has people to go out and nurse the sick robots. Some of which probably will require.

Engineers. Computer, emissions etc.

And there would need to be third arm of Justice between the District and Circut for insta-lawsuiting so that families of those mashed by Robot trucks in their little cars can get checks cut to them. IF the robot express fails or topples, then all assets go to family.

on and on and on.

We have trucks today getting stuck in 3 inches of wet snow, unlike the late 80's monsters that owned winter in 3 feet of powder or whatever. In my time.

And the customer? They are actually going to have to leverage their wide behinds out of the office and walk a mile to the end of the gate to view the line of robots waiting for a dock.

Robots? HA.....

 

I'm reminded of a test in Florida on a back road, everything going good, until the truck unexpectedly coasts to a stop. Turns out, there was a power failure at the "Command Center" ( some basement somewhere) and the truck stopped functioning. It was something the inventor hadn't thought of.

 

Whenever I see the NJ head of the DOT talk, he acts like this will help them meet their goal of eliminating accidents.

He does not mention that he and several of his replacements will be long retired before this happens...

The won't build truck only highways so things won't fully work out until autos, etc. are autonomous too...

Now what about motorcycles, bicycles, and pedestrians?

Maybe your grand children will question 'grand pops' job title but drivers will be around for years to come.