Robot Trucks Will Soon Screw Up The U.S.A. (And Nobody's Talking About It)

Cracked.com ^ | 08/11/2020 | William Kuechenberg

[tbw2]

While this column isn't about the threat posed by Transformers, it is about a robot apocalypse that's going to ravage the Midwest. I know, I know, the last thing you want to hear about right now is another imminent doomsday -- aren't global warming and COVID-19 and murder hornets and measles and the ever-present specter of thermonuclear war and the possibility of hyper-intelligent toilet lampreys enough?

Well, it's likely you haven't heard too much about this particular apocalypse because it's not a sexy blood-and-guts kind. Instead of armies of Terminators hunting down handfuls of survivors for their sweet sweet spinal fluid, it'll look like this:

AHHHHHHHH!

Driverless semis.

[Redcitizen]

Great movie.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Not to worry...the problem is overblown...

[Publius]

Spielberg’s first major splash as a director.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I think we need more trains.

Who let the Democrat in?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

FORTY NINE years ago. Can’t believe it.

[DilJective]

"I think we need more trains"

I agree! It is such an efficient way of transportation over long distances. Also, trains cars that can transport RVs, cars, and motorcycles with passenger berthing. In Europe there are great options for train travel with high speed and decent passenger accommodations.

[jz638]

Automating long haul trucking for cross country terminal to terminal loads would be a net positive for America. The jobs currently pay well because they are bad for your health and family long term and both people considering driving for a living and the logistics firms know the robots are coming. It will be more than a few years before the trucks load and unload themselves, so regional and delivery routes (where truckers can sleep in their own beds each night) will be around.

[jmacusa]

A buddy of mine had a CB radio back in the day. ‘’A big 10 4 bubba’’. My God. Was that ever a million years ago.

[CJ Wolf]

I have 3 working cb radios in my faraday cage. What is old is working.

[jmacusa]

I still have VCR and tapes. It works. The tapes play fine and clear.

[marktwain]

I do not believe they can fully replace drivers.

Not quite yet.

It is coming.

It is the speed of change that causes the problems.

There is a huge shortage of long distance truck drivers, as well.

[marktwain]

How is the truck going to deal with weather conditions like high crosswinds and ice?

How do human drivers?

Each skill learned by humans can be learned by robot trucks, and transmitted, almost instantaneously, to the whole fleet.

[trebb]

Way down on my “things to worry about” list for the time being.

[headstamp 2]

Great series. Watched it on free TUBI.

Made Sir Roger a household name. People that don’t like Moore as James Bond have to understand that he actually played it AS The Saint.

Another good series is “Danger Man” with Patrick McGoohan. He’s a secret operative for NATO. 1/2 hr. episodes.

[fuzzylogic]

It doesn’t have to. Whether it requires a human to “authorize conditions” or, given the platooning concept of a lead driver and ‘following truck(s)’, these issues can be handled in real-time by a human.

Outside that there’s various ways you can sense for such things too, which can lead to a ‘pull over and stop’ result. Overall, the only metric that is important is ‘incidents per mile’ - which will be lower, at which point you’re a net positive even if not perfect.

[outofsalt]

"And with each mistake the programming and hardware will get reviewed and improved until they are far better than human drivers able to run through Antifa protesters without slowing down.

I can imagine an upside.

[tbw2]

What movie is that from?

[tbw2]

Electronic logging devices and more advanced data collection systems are already common.

[wally_bert]

True.

I was trying to pay homage to Dave Dudley’s “Six Days On The Road”.

[zeugma]

You can have truck hubs where a real driver picks up a load to handle the last few miles. The 2000 freeway miles it took to get it there can be done, and soon. Most likely, we’ll first see truck “platooning” where there is a lead driver, followed by other trucks without one.

I believe we call this "platooning" thing a train.