Do You Fear Autonomous Trucking Technology?

Take it from me, NO smart computer would ever want to drive a dirt truck!

There are also several segments of trucking that will never be able to utilize automated trucks.

Tankers

Heavy Haul

Oversized

Logging

Paving

Dirt hauling

Garbage trucks

Those are just a few off the top of my head. Hanging meat is another one. It handles much differently than a load of beer.

Once the truck can fuel itself, crank its own landing gear, connect it's own airlines & electrical, check the seal, top off its fluids, pre-trip its trailer, wipe the bug guts off of the sensor that tells it that its actually on the road (my radar gets caked with dirty snow which disables my cruise control until it's cleaned...total PITA), and not to mention dealing with shippers & scanning it's own BOL's...

There's DC's that won't even let you in the yard until you get out of the truck, push a button & talk to someone over an intercom.

Nah...not worried. 😉

Nothing to see here..move along. Can you see autonomous trucks going through Wyoming in the winter? ..the winds the temps, the ice, the snow..it's not happening anytime soon. Trucking companies are hiring like gangbusters! It's all good for now. 100 years down the road.. who knows. The transportation industry as we know it will have to drastically change and it's probably not like we think it will.

Refer to this article for a reality check

While the promise of automation has some worried, the real reason it's being taken on by the tech industry is the maturity of it's core business. Let's be honest, Apple, Google (Alphabet), and other tech giants are pouring money down a hole here because the core business they are in is flatlining. Phones today don't do much more than what they did last year or 5 years ago. There are no 'killer apps' anymore. People are still using keyboards, not thinking it onto their computers. 3D was just a pasing fad.

As much as tech companies are trying to stay in business, they are rapidly discovering the limits of even today's hardware and software. Demands of shippers and receivers, costs, and questions of reliability, liability, and the legislative agends of 50 states (and additionally all the border provinces in Canada) are the immovable objects that technology will not move. The transport business model is far outside what the tech people understand, but at least give them credit for trying. They are in trouble jobwise as well, as the 'gig' economy is not sustainable and will collapse tech long before it undermines transport.

So the truth yes there will be autonomous trucks, cars, and beyond. However in the near future the job of a driver is still safe. There are more things involved in the job if truck driving that are actually driving the truck. Just off my the top of my head.

1. Not everything that goes into a pre-trip is sensor controlled, or has a way for a computer to know it's safe to operate. 2. Who is going to unhook the trailer and pick up a new one. Even if this is solved this will most likely open up new jobs at shippers and recievers. 3. Who will take care of rejected priduct? How will the truck know it's rejected? This can easily be fixed but still someone needs to write the code for this. 4. With all of the road work going on, not all of the lane changes, or closed exits, or just changes in general are reported or sent to GPS. Then not all GPS' know what's an approved truck route.

That's just yo make a few things there are so many more. Again I think this will happen in my lifetime. But there is a lot of tech still not ready yet to support this. Once the tech is created it will extensive testing. Some of those things will have to be as close to flawless to save lives. The other tech is meant to continue to save companies money. If it doesn't do that then it's not worth the switch.

When this switch is made new jobs will be created to ride along, or monitor these machines. We are what 30 or almost 30 years into Microsoft Windows. Some of the best tech guys in the world. We see how wonderful that works. We also see where it started and where it is today. And that just allows us to use a pc. Would you trust a computer to save your life every time? Not now but in 30 years we will see.

This could possibly end the jobs for many a truck driver?

My roommate, a former truck mechanic in the air force and now a Command and Control Battle Management Operations specialist in that service branch, is a high-tech nut. He is fascinated by the prospect of someday soon owning an autonomous car and made the comment to me that drivers are being replaced by technology. I had expressed my interest in driving for a living to him and he warned me that autonomous is coming.

Are any drivers here concerned about that?

Wouldn't unions be fighting it?