A self-driving truck delivered butter from California to Pennsylvania in three days

Santa Cruz Sentinel ^ | December 10, 2019 | LEVI SUMAGAYSAY

[libstripper]

3 days, CA to PA is about 800 miles a day. The “safety driver,” with nothing to do but “look out” must have been exhausted with that number of miles per day. Having crossed the country from TN to CA @ about 500 mi. per day, I know. This whole business of “self driving” vehicles just plain scares me. Thanks, but no thanks. It’s a recipe for slaughter. And, what happens if a radical Mudslime gets ahold of one of those weapons of potential mass murder??

[Zhang Fei]

[Who fuels them up and bops the tires?]

---

Easy enough for current fueling stations to add this service for an extra fee.

[4Runner]

Ever since the Teamsters Union pulled freight off the railroad tracks where it belonged and stuck it all onto the big rigs riding the U.S. interstate system, Americans have been the losers. You can blame Eisenhower for that one.

[Veto!]

I loved elevator operators. The guys in the building where I worked were always polite, knew people’s names and the floors where they got off. Even warned me occasionally if my boss had arrived in a rotten mood. That was back in LA. Many years ago....

When I traveled to NYC on business, I had a scare when my cab took off before I’d finished closing the door and caught my thumb in it. The elevator operator took one look and told me I had to see a doctor and suggested which one to see./...and he was right.

[Kickaha]

I’d like to see one go from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonapah. And can it drive on the backroads so it doesn’t get weighed.

[billorites]

"the new AI sex robots"

Who I would eagerly f**k before any of the shrews I want to college with.

[4Runner]

Thanks.

[Bellhead]

yes, many could be laid off.

[rey]

I saw this with Emilio Estevez in Maximum Overdrive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggWS4tTzs60

[Zhang Fei]

[Who fuels them up and bops the tires?]

---

An intriguing possibility with respect to remotely-operated trucks is that it might cut down on the amount of goods falling off the truck (i.e. hijackings). Hard to threaten a remote and anonymous driver with injury or death. So the benefits aren’t just better work conditions for the remote drivers, lower labor turnover rates, lower per truck labor costs and needing half as many trucks, because they can be driven 24 hours a day, they extend to reducing shrinkage and therefore insurance rates, not to mention the hassle of having to reship items lost to hijackers.

[Safetgiver]

And he uses the back door so he doesn’t get laid. “Sorry”.

[cookcounty]

Before getting too excited, please realize that 95% of trucking jobs are not about long-haul terminal-to-terminal transportation. The main function of most Truck drivers is less about actually driving than managing, delivering, repositioning, customer communication, blocking and bracing of freight, Counting and verifying volumes, strapping freight, “oh, you need to place the larger skids on the left side of the warehouse next to the 2nd dumpster” etc etc etc etc..........

That’s what trucking is actually mostly about.

[upchuck]

The truck, which traveled on interstates 15 and 70 right before Thanksgiving, had to take scheduled breaks but drove mostly autonomously. There were zero “disengagements,” or times the self-driving system had to be suspended because of a problem, Kerrigan said.

I assume the scheduled breaks were to keep within Fed rules for truck drivers and to recharge the truck.

This is impressive but I'm still distrustful of "self-driving" vehicles.

[Kickaha]

Haha! That’s ok, a lot of different things come to mind listening to that song.

[fproy2222]

“single human driver”

My thoughts are that it will end up using operators in different areas and the trucks will be handed off to the next operator.

[KarlInOhio]

Why would anyone want to transport Coors beer anywhere?

Coloradans do to move it away.

[thinden]

Who pumped the fuel on pit stops along the way?

[Rebelbase]

They'll never quit.

[EEGator]

Anytime.

[EEGator]

Good Soundtrack.
I even liked the crappy movie too.