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Study: Automated Long-haul Trucking Could Leave Hundreds of Thousands Without Jobs
https://www.dbusiness.com/ ^ | March 28, 2022 | By Jake Bekemeyer

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 ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: automation; automotive; end; supply; trucking
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Same here, the truck had one driver and two guys who got the cans from the back yard, emptied them and then returned the cans to their regular spot and put the lids back on! No one lugged their cans out to the curb, and the trash bags were the paper bags we got from shopping. Plastic bags were an extra expense, and we only used the big ones for leaves and branches.


41 posted on 03/30/2022 1:35:28 PM PDT by skr (May God confound the enemy)
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To: Alberta's Child

“after I gave him a brief list of the many things a truck driver is required to do”

Small humanoid robots that pop out of the back and get busy at each stop.... :)


42 posted on 03/30/2022 1:38:14 PM PDT by BiglyCommentary
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To: subterfuge

“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”

I posted here the other day that with luck by the time I lose my Driver’s License because of age ( I’m early 70’s). I will be able to have a car that drives for me. Get in car say “grocery store” and off we go.
Funny, in some ways we have not progressed that much. My father grew up riding horses to get around, cars were there but even Model T was to expensive. Anyway when he was a teen he had a habit of drinking a bit too much, no problem, get on horse and say “home” and horse new where to go.

On a darker note I can also see pushes towards no personal transport for various reasons.


43 posted on 03/30/2022 1:41:08 PM PDT by nomorelurker
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To: noiseman

>> The best combination is to always have a human in charge, but let automation assist him where it makes sense.

Didn’t we already have that with self-driving cars that the human was still supposed to be paying attention in?

To be honest, after seeing the videos of the cars and trucks crashing into each other in I81 yesterday or the day before, I am totally uninterested in automated tractor trailers.

Yes, I know they plan to only put them where the weather is foreseeable, but I recall at incident when a plane was forced to land on the Hudson River... 155 people were very grateful for the human “drivers”!


44 posted on 03/30/2022 1:42:54 PM PDT by Chicory
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To: Nik Naym

Some people here are really smart. Helluvan observation. D


45 posted on 03/30/2022 1:45:37 PM PDT by Luke21
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To: nomorelurker

“Anyway when he was a teen he had a habit of drinking a bit too much, no problem, get on horse and say “home” and horse new where to go.”

I’m positive there was a story posted here in the last year about the cops pulling over a guy sleeping in his Tesla while he was being driven home down the interstate after a night out drinking.


46 posted on 03/30/2022 1:46:21 PM PDT by BiglyCommentary
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To: BiglyCommentary

Two cops pulling over sleeping drunks in Tesla on autopilot posts.

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3750412/posts

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3709965/posts


47 posted on 03/30/2022 1:50:21 PM PDT by BiglyCommentary
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To: fuzzylogic

Hopefully they allow people to vote on allowing this because I will definitely be against letting driverless trucks on the road.


48 posted on 03/30/2022 1:54:24 PM PDT by escapefromboston (Free Chauvin)
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To: subterfuge
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.

My children are 25 and 29. And I stand by my statement.

There will not be driverless trucks plying the interstates within the next 40 years.

Thanks to the efforts of companies like yours, there will be trucks on the interstate with hands-free assisted driving, and that alone will make trucking much safer for both the truckers and the other drivers on the roads.

I am sorry, but you must know the challenges in simply navigating a construction zone for autonomous software. You know the challenges in navigating roads during snow storms before the roads are fully cleared. You know the challenges in knowing how to successfully navigate a small detour. You know the challenges in simply avoiding a pothole in the road.

Assisted driving, perhaps with the driver able to leave the driver's seat and microwave a sandwich in the sleeper while on the road, YES.

Waiving goodbye to a truck leaving a loading dock without anyone onboard, and arriving again at a loading dock across the country? NEVER IN MY or perhaps MY CHILDREN'S LIFETIMES. The challenges in just navigating the last mile to the receiving loading dock successfully FULLY AUTONOMOUSLY is a huge challenge. Like most projects, the last 1% takes 99% of the time to solve.

There's not even a means for a driverless truck to refuel. That alone limits the range of autonomous driverless trucks for decades to come, until the truck designs and autonomous refueling infrastructure is in place.

Trust me when I say that although I don't work in the autonomous driving research field, I do work at a major midwestern university and we do have a robust autonomous driving research program that i am familiar with. And we can't even get a driverless bus to navigate our campus at 15 mph yet.

49 posted on 03/30/2022 1:57:59 PM PDT by Yo-Yo (Is the /sarc tag really necessary?)
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To: RomanSoldier19

“Study: Automated Long-haul Trucking Could Leave Hundreds of Thousands Without Jobs”

Let me head down to my neighborhood livery stable and ask the stable keeper what he thinks about changing technologies.


50 posted on 03/30/2022 1:58:56 PM PDT by MercyFlush (I don't follow the science. I follow the money. )
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To: Nik Naym

Criminals will probably be able to hack into the truck’s computers and just have it stop in some parking lot. Then they can go and steal all the stuff they want with no problems.


51 posted on 03/30/2022 2:04:07 PM PDT by escapefromboston (Free Chauvin)
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To: Yo-Yo

“driverless truck to refuel. “

Agree with that last 1% is the “killer”. But I see the fuel thing as an easy solve. Major truck stop fuel chains get agreements that when a robo truck comes in, an attendant runs out and takes care of the truck.


52 posted on 03/30/2022 2:04:31 PM PDT by BiglyCommentary
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To: RomanSoldier19

But it will make trial lawyers very rich. Because instead of suing the truck driver they can sue the company (with much deeper pockets) which manufactured the truck. Accident have happened with driverless cars already.


53 posted on 03/30/2022 2:13:21 PM PDT by entropy12 (Blockade of Cuba by USA was OK by neocons, but Russia must tolerate NATO weapons on its border!)
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To: RomanSoldier19

Oh, they’ll be pushing hard for this after the Freedom Convoy, make no mistake.


54 posted on 03/30/2022 2:15:05 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: hinckley buzzard

Don’t worry, by that point you probably won’t be allowed to drive, at least not unless you have a sufficient social credit score.


55 posted on 03/30/2022 2:16:39 PM PDT by Boogieman
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To: BiglyCommentary

Trunk monkeys, not robots.


56 posted on 03/30/2022 2:16:57 PM PDT by GingisK
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Do like I do and refuse to play their stupid recycling game.


57 posted on 03/30/2022 2:21:15 PM PDT by cyclotic (I won't give up my FREEDOM for your FEAR. Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee.)
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To: subterfuge

I hate everything you stand for. Sorry. There’s no room in my life for something as stupid as autonomous vehicles.

I drive as much as some truckers. I’m safer than most and enjoy it.

I have a rental right now that’s a blast to drive. That joy will be gone with something as stupid as autonomous driving at 50 mph till government throttles it lower.


58 posted on 03/30/2022 2:27:33 PM PDT by cyclotic (I won't give up my FREEDOM for your FEAR. Oh Canada, we stand on guard for thee.)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum

One single truck accident, which will happen, will end it.


59 posted on 03/30/2022 2:30:38 PM PDT by drSteve78 (Je suis Deplorable STILL)
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To: metmom

Things change over time as science/technology develops. Just
think of 1492 when Columbus sailed the ocean blue and where
we are today. No comparison as to then and it will continue to
change as time progresses.

Man on the moon, space walks, tunnels under mountains, surgeries
never though of thus the future will be amazing.


60 posted on 03/30/2022 2:33:15 PM PDT by deport
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