Those worried about self-driving trucks taking your jobs, don't!

I've said it many times before. The ONLY way autonomous works is if everything......everything is autonomous to. Humans are chaotic and AI in its best form can not predict or judge on premonition and gut what will happen. It only knows patterns. At best they may be able to have is Distribution Center runners and even then they would have to carve out their own predetermined routes that are private and exclude human travel. Trains already do this to the best degree. Then you have to get them to safely park trailers in yards. Let's face it. Anyone having to do the Empty Trailer Hunt knows that nothing is where it is supposed to be in the condition it's supposed to be. There are no sensors to detect nails in tires. Leaking suspension or mechanical parts. Loose nuts etc.
The radars, space detectors etc. always come into issues with sun, rain, and snow. No sensor detection, no go. These are just the tip of the iceberg of problems that would need to be overcome.

Lets face it. They cant even get window motors to last the life of the vehicle.

 

Never going to get a self driving truck to load equipment onto a trailer either so I have no worries. I like to chuckle at the thought of these autonomous vehicles though.

 

It's always be a money problem... at the end of the day trucking is a business. And if they can't make the autonomous tech anywhere near cost effective, then it won't be implemented... the technology will eventually be there.

 

There will probably be a niche market for it but truckers tell me all the time that their trucks will break down from time to time. We don’t need a truck powered by AI having a Windows Blue Screen of death moment while going 65 mph down a crowded interstate.

 

I wouldn’t say it’s a pipedream. Fully autonomous driverless trucks are already on public roads delivering freight. All the things done on each end—pre trips, loading, unloading, dropping and hooking trailers, and any other special situations can be done by a lower paid worker, so I don’t think that’s a good argument against them. I do think it’s going to be a very long time though before they become widespread and eliminate any significant number of driver jobs.

 

Hub to hub will be the first implementation of it. But that won’t be any time soon. New drivers, you have a long career ahead if that’s what you want. There are much larger issues in the world that will be the source of problems long before losing a driving job to AI.

 

Fully autonomous means level 5. The best we have on the roads are level 3.5 and that's being generous. Basically it's simply trains using the road. A very well mapped out route that rarely experiences bad weather and never changes.

 

It’s going to be a long time for autonomous vehicles to be effective and safe. The infrastructure they need is billions of dollars away. It’s certainly not going to happen in my lifetime.