Posted on 05/26/2014 3:15:22 PM PDT by Kaslin
In August of 2013 I wrote Message to 5.7 Million Truck Drivers "No Drivers Needed" Your Job is About to Vanish.
The key word in that sentence is "about". I did not mean immediately, but I did mean a lot sooner than truck drivers and the general public expect. Most protested. I received many emails saying this would not happen for decades.
Many truck drivers thought it would never happen. Most mentioned insurance issues. Yes, there are problems, but time has marched on even quicker than I thought.
TechCrunch reports California Will Start Granting Licenses For Driverless Cars In September.
Come September, the California Department of Motor Vehicles will begin granting licenses to select driverless cars and their human co-pilots, which will make it a bit less legally iffy as to whether or not they’re actually allowed to be on a public road.
The good news: The license will only cost $150 a pop, and that covers 10 vehicles and up to 20 test drivers.
The bad (but probably actually good) news: You probably can’t get one, so don’t go trying to make your own Googlecar just yet.
Stiff License Terms
Yes, the terms of the license are stiff including $5,000,000 insurance against personal injury, death, or property damage. And a test driver has to be able to take immediate control of the car at all times.
Nonetheless, the licensing is a big step forward. Totally driverless cars are but a single step away. All that needs to happen is for California to eliminate the requirement that someone has to be in the car at all times to take control.
A big issue is that radar can detect size and shape of objects, but it does not have human judgement regarding danger. For example, a balloon blowing across the road is a much different thing from a hunk of metal the same size sitting in the road.
Such difficulties will be overcome.
Incentives and Implications
The implications on the shipping business are staggering. A full-time truck driver might cost as much as $100,000 a year. The incentive to get rid of millions of full-time drivers is massive.
A July 2013 Truckers Report headline reads ATA: Self-Driving Trucks Are “Close To Inevitable”
However, the article itself dismissed the idea totally.
“People come up with these grandiose ideas,” says Bob Esler, a commercial trucker for almost 50 years. “How are you going to get the truck into a dock or fuel it?”
And then there’s loading and unloading. Pre-trip inspections. Signing for drop-offs and pickups. Making sure cargo is properly secured. Making sure the cargo that’s being loaded actually gets loaded. The list just keeps going on and on.
The Last Mile
Many of the objections in the above article have to do with the last mile. Let's assume someone has to load the truck. Let's also assume an actual skilled driver has to dock the truck and make the final delivery (arguably a bad assumption).
Yet, even if those assumptions are true, nothing stops a trucking company from having distribution facilities right off an interstate near major cities, where local drivers deliver the goods the last mile.
Why can't all but the last few miles be driverless even if a skilled driver is needed some step of the way for safety reasons?
Technology marches on at a breathtaking pace. We might actually see commercial driverless vehicles on the roads within a few years.
LOL
I wrote the same thing, below.
Freepers.
Apparently, in regards to the trucking industry, now is not the time for tort reform.
They kill someone by putting one of these rigs on the road in a boneheaded way, and that person should be allowed to own their company.
Rail does the same thing and within probably the last 20 miles, and especially with the new uniform cargo containers.
It is absolutely fascinating that the Teamsters’ Union is about to be undone by such a left-leaning corporation as Google.
Taxi companies and even Uber will feel the pressure.
No more being picked up by a driver who smells like a two week old pastrami and salmi sandwich, who I can’t frickin understand and has no clue what the quickest or most expedient route is.
They kill someone by putting one of these rigs on the road in a boneheaded way, and that person should be allowed to own their company.
________________________________________
I don’t want their company...
I want my grandchildren alive...
If they kill one of my grandkids, I’m going for the throat, TNana.
Maybe taxis and delivery vehicles, but I'm not seeing a big demand for cars driving around with nobody in them.
Let’s see:
1. No more truck drivers driving drunk or drugged.
2. No more truck drivers falling asleep at the wheel.
3. No more truck drivers veering into the other lane thanks to ‘Pavement Princess’ acts, Chicken Choking, ad nauseam.
Sounds great at first, but a lot of rural private property is supported by truck drivers. This could result in significant loss of private property as displaced drivers are forced by the Tax Man to sell or abandon their property.
Where "driverless" will help will be to let the driver "catch forty winks" on long inter-urban stretches so they will be fully alert and capable when the inevitable "needs a human" things happen.
As long as no programs are created that allow the computer to text, tweet, or otherwise f-around on the internet.....
they will be an improvement over the asshats I put up with everyday.
What could possibly go wrong?
Can computers predict furloughed teamster drivers chucking stuff out in front of them on the freeway?
But computers can get hacked. Virus blue scream of death
So future car going be Knight Rider KITT????
What could possibly go wrong?
Willie Green, izzdat you?
Either all cars will have to be computer operated or none of the cars should be allowed to be computer operated. The reaction times between man and machine are not compatible.
Machines operate by an On/Off decision. Humans operate on varying shades that run the gamut from black to white.
People will die needlessly.
Wait until one of these cars has a mechanical breakdown or a blown tire. Replacing the human driver will be easier said than done.
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