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FedEx launches autonomous truck routes
The Hill ^ | 09/22/2021 | MYCHAEL SCHNELL

Posted on 09/22/2021 1:19:10 PM PDT by ChicagoConservative27

FedEx on Wednesday launched a new initiative that will test autonomous truck routes between Dallas and Houston.

FedEx said it is collaborating with Aurora, an autonomous technology developer, and PACCAR, a medium-and heavy-duty vehicle manufacturer, to launch the testing program, of which the pilot began on Wednesday.

The companies will use Aurora’s autonomous driving technology in PACCAR’s Autonomous Vehicle Platform within FedEx trucking operations, according to FedEx.

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: Texas; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: autonomous; fedex; routes; truck
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Great, the trucks will fail and slam into your house or office building.
1 posted on 09/22/2021 1:19:10 PM PDT by ChicagoConservative27
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To: ChicagoConservative27

My main concern is what will everyone do for work when automation becomes far more prevalent?
It’s actually a serious concern.


2 posted on 09/22/2021 1:23:57 PM PDT by EEGator
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Next TikTok challenge: Remote wrecking of autonomous trucks.


3 posted on 09/22/2021 1:24:17 PM PDT by lightman (I am a binary Trinitarian. Deal with it!)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

FedEx “lost” a 42 pound office copier machine.
They also “were unable to deliver” TWO cases from Walmart, after inexplicably trucking them 1200 miles out of the way to an indian reservation on the Canadian border in Montana

now what can we expect from Fedex?
maybe the entire truck crashing into the living room?


4 posted on 09/22/2021 1:25:17 PM PDT by faithhopecharity (Politicians are not born, they are excreted. Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 to 43 BCE))
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To: ChicagoConservative27

If ‘autonomous truck’ means I have to wait outside by the curb, get the package and take it to my door myself, I’m not interested. Not very discreet, is it? Everyone in your neighborhood knows you’re receiving a package.
I have nothing delivered but dull, routine merchandise, but I don’t want any desperado peeping from behind their curtains, knowing what I’m bringing inside.


5 posted on 09/22/2021 1:26:48 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: ChicagoConservative27
While they will be running autonomously, the trucks will have a backup driver for safety.

Ok, so why not pay the "back up driver" to drive instead of sleeping?

6 posted on 09/22/2021 1:28:54 PM PDT by bgill (Which came first, the vax or the virus?)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Prediction: Such trucks will have an unaccountable tendency to catch on fire when nobody is looking.


7 posted on 09/22/2021 1:34:12 PM PDT by Salman (It's not a "slippery slope" if it was part of the program all along. )
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To: EEGator

“My main concern is what will everyone do for work when automation becomes far more prevalent?
It’s actually a serious concern.“

A valid concern but it’s a concern people have had for every new technology .
More efficiency leads to more productivity .
I think this technology is coming, but it will need separate lanes.


8 posted on 09/22/2021 1:36:42 PM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (Leave me alone, I have no incriminating evidence on the Clinton’s )
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To: EEGator

“My main concern is what will everyone do for work when automation becomes far more prevalent?
It’s actually a serious concern.“

A valid concern but it’s a concern people have had for every new technology .
More efficiency leads to more productivity .
I think this technology is coming, but it will need separate lanes.


9 posted on 09/22/2021 1:37:19 PM PDT by HereInTheHeartland (Leave me alone, I have no incriminating evidence on the Clinton’s )
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Taliban probably already working to hack the system. Drones on wheels:-0


10 posted on 09/22/2021 1:38:50 PM PDT by dblshot
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To: ChicagoConservative27

I dare them to try that on I-40 east and west of Albuquerque. Curves and hills challenge auto drivers with slow trucks and fast drivers exceeding the 75 mph speed limit. A couple of weeks ago a wrong-way driver near the Indian casino west of ABQ killed two. The area west of ABQ to the state line has Indian pueblos and reservation land on both sides of the highway and Gallup has an extreme number of drunk drivers who are unpredictable when on the road.


11 posted on 09/22/2021 1:41:31 PM PDT by CedarDave (Wearing a mask to keep you safe from the virus is like putting up chicken wire to keep out mosquitos)
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To: bgill

So...now it takes TWO vehicles to make each delivery instead of one? That’s BRILLIANT! 🙄


12 posted on 09/22/2021 1:43:01 PM PDT by ZinGirl (Now a grandma ....can't afford a tagline :))
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To: EEGator

As someone who works in Logistics this is something very few organizations are going to be able to duplicate. The own all the equipment and both the ship and delivery points. They can program drop and hooks on set routes where the trailers will have e-tags that a scanner will read when they go in and out of their facilities. The automated truck will have to have programed drop point or some mechanism to alert a human that it has arrived.

Very few organization are as vertically integrated as someone like Fed Ex.

Most ship points broker their loads. So a wide variety of trucking companies are contracted as needed to haul from point to point.

A few big trucking companies might be able to do long distance haul from high volume point to point shipping but they will still need human drivers to deliver to the consolidation point and then make the end point delivery.


13 posted on 09/22/2021 1:43:19 PM PDT by MNJohnnie (They would have abandon leftism to achieve sanity. Freeper Olog-hai)
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To: EEGator
Every “fully automated vehicle” on the road today has AT LEAST one operator in it.

Most people may have no idea how many responsibilities a commercial driver has that have nothing to do with actually driving.

14 posted on 09/22/2021 1:45:54 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("All lies and jest, ‘til a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.")
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To: ChicagoConservative27

Sounds like bigger trucks going from one fedex facility to another [truck routes between Dallas and Houston]

Will be mostly highway miles.


15 posted on 09/22/2021 1:46:04 PM PDT by Pollard (Some people like to argue just to argue.)
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To: Alberta's Child

Sorry, I think things without writing the initial thoughts involved sometimes.

I’m mainly referring to the overall economy. Food & service, packaging, farming, store checkout, manufacturing, etc.

I’m a EE, so I’m not against technology, just wondering aloud where things will go.


16 posted on 09/22/2021 1:53:50 PM PDT by EEGator
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To: lee martell
If ‘autonomous truck’ means I have to wait outside by the curb, get the package and take it to my door myself

These are heavy 18 wheel "over the road" trucks, not delivery trucks.

17 posted on 09/22/2021 1:57:52 PM PDT by ETCM
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To: lee martell

I would assume it’s trucking between their hubs.....


18 posted on 09/22/2021 2:10:39 PM PDT by nevergore (I have a terrible rash on my covfefe....)
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To: ChicagoConservative27

When they get reliable enough to NOT have a human in them, I predict the hijacking will start.


19 posted on 09/22/2021 2:10:48 PM PDT by FrankRizzo890
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To: CedarDave

Dallas and Houston have some very tough squirrely high speed interstate sections with people driving like wild yahoos in heavy traffic. THEY ARE NUTS!! These things will only be semi-safe past Conroe heading north on 45 to Dallas and about 30 minutes south of Dallas while on 45 heading to Houston.


20 posted on 09/22/2021 2:11:44 PM PDT by BiglyCommentary
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