Guess the movie!
Posted on 03/30/2022 12:29:31 PM PDT by RomanSoldier19
A new study by researchers at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh offers insight of how and where automation might replace operator hours in long-haul trucking.
The study found that 94 percent of operator hours may be impacted if automated trucking technology improves to operate in all weather conditions across the continental U.S. Currently, automated testing is mainly being tested in the sun belt states due to the more predictable and less harsh weather.
Sun belt states include Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah.
“Our results suggest that the impacts of automation may not happen all at once,” says Parth Vaishnav, study co-author and assistant professor of sustainable systems at the U-M School for Environment and Sustainability. “If automation is restricted to Sun Belt states — because the technology may not initially work well in rough weather — about 10 percent of the operator hours will be affected.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dbusiness.com ...
Let me tell you what would happen:
A new easy crime will evolve: automated truck hijacking. A group of thieves with 3 vehicles among them simply gets on the sides and in front of the truck and slow down and then stop. The truck will do the same. Then just steal the cargo. Easy peasy.
Driving on a lot of interstates now is a real pain. You won’t find me on them when these trucks hit the road. I use back roads a lot any way. I am not driving with driverless trucks on the road.
So recently there were articles about the acute shortage of truck drivers. And now this?
Who wants to commit to a future truck driving career with no future.
Translation: “What can we do to prevent a REAL strike from the great unwashed?”
As an automotive software engineer...I get the perspectives shared here. Yes, I do wonder if a better train infrastructure makes waaaaaay more sense...it probably does but I’m not sure if other factors (political/unions/etc) are stopping it.
Outside that, driverless trucks are already on the roads in trial testing. Given, they currently have lead and follow vehicles with drivers that can hit the ‘stop’ button for the truck. ...but to say that it won’t happen soon doesn’t appear to be reality. There’s always a shortage of truckers and the goal is to handle the freeway part with automation and just have truckers finish the last few miles, all local trips for them - they get to go home.
If you narrow automation to specific environments (e.g. only freeways, not on snow, etc.) then their ability to operate safety increases greatly. We will probably see fleets of automated trucks, in certain areas, without assistance, in a few years. Seeing the maturing technologies involved and the money being poured into it, it just seems inevitable.
Just my guess from what is required in a manufacturing environment. We have automated equipment which is routinely calibrated.
However for each lot there has to be a human to sign off that all procedures were followed and the output is in specification. Should something not be correct the machine is shut off and corrections made, then another sign off.
The same thing goes for the automated warehouse. Someone has to be there to sign off on the shipping request and sign for FedEx or UPS.
Make an automated truck, that is fine. But there may well have to be a human who can take over if there is a problem. Just like a machinist shuts down a lathe or a warehouse worker stops a conveyor if it is not working correctly.
Not just truckers, but travel centers, greasy spoon diners, and truckstop hookers.
The loom will take away the job of so many tailors!
Will the “self-driving” programs be able to back up a truck to a loading dock without destroying the dock and the truck? Will they scoot the truck off to a service station when fuel gets low?
Drivers will be needed for the foreseeable future.
This country isn’t anywhere near having fully automated long-haul trucks on the road. These articles are usually written by ignorant and/or delusional people who have no idea what they’re talking about.
Exactly. I’d like to know that the driver of the truck has some skin in the game as well, instead of a computer that couldn’t care less if it causes a 50-car pileup and destroys itself in the process.
The same thing goes for airplanes. We could fully automate air travel right now; pilots only monitor the systems during most of the flight, and the advent of NextGen RNAV and RNP navigation procedures makes it possible for the flight management system in the cockpit to fly the aircraft more precisely than the pilots can. Air traffic control technology is heading in the same direction. However, very few people would be willing to turn their safety over to automated systems that suffer no consequences for making mistakes. At least the human crews, even though they themselves are sometimes the cause of accidents, have self preservation as a goal.
The best combination is to always have a human in charge, but let automation assist him where it makes sense.
Certainly. Probably there will be a human 'driver' monitoring the video/data feeds for multiple moving trucks, ready to intervene electronically if needed. The monitoring drivers will work in regular shifts but the trucks will keep moving round the clock, which should mean faster shipping overall.
Most likely the tech will be satellite with a cellular mode for circumstances such as tunnels.
Are your children in their 70s or 80s? Because it’s coming. And it will be much safer than all the impaired, distracted and stupid people on the road today. I work for a company that is developing autonomous driving solutions. Things are moving very quickly as the developmental process is being fine tuned.
Our company, unlike Tesla, is focused on making the technology as safe as is possible. Not mitigating crashes, but avoiding them entirely. The trick is solving that last 1% of safety risk. Doing it any other way is negligent. See Tela’s many crashes with people actually being killed. My company won’t do that.
First time one these things kills people then some human needs to go to prison.
He lost interest in the opportunity after I gave him a brief list of the many things a truck driver is required to do in addition to driving the truck.
And us without food or goods when the trucks are hacked and diverted.
And us without food or goods when the trucks are hacked and diverted.
And held for ransom.
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