Posted on 08/06/2023 4:16:13 AM PDT by xxqqzz
The North Texas area has quietly become the new frontier for the development of self-driving trucks, with several companies from around the world setting up operations — and using North Texas highways for real-world testing.
For now, these delivery trucks making stops at Sam’s Club, Kroger and other destinations do have a human behind the wheel — a safety driver in case of emergencies or technology glitches. In the not-too-distant future, that will no longer be the case.
Several companies are competing to bring to market a dominant driverless technology for the future of moving goods on the nation’s highways. Several of the largest industry players are now in North Texas, lured by the region’s central location on the transportation network and the state’s looser regulations.
But that also has some experts worried about just how safe driverless trucks really are, given the technology is so new.
(Excerpt) Read more at ttnews.com ...
Daum! Driverless trucks WITH drivers! What will they think of next!
Thanks for adding real information to the conversation!
At least a human isn’t going to malfunction
`````````````````````````````````
I don’t believe you thought that over. Humans malfunction all the time. Human errors are most likely the major cause of accidents.
Do they actually drive well enough to earn the CDL or is it "given" to them because of a driver shortage / they'll work cheap?
That’s our new economy. Absolutely anything is justified if it can destroy an American blue-collar job.
Those tire sensors are useless. Ours has been on since shortly after we bought the car. Maybe there is a fix for it, but meh- taking a look at a tire visually and being aware of issues beats the sensor in my opinion- and yes, cars will get hacked- there was talk of terrorists hacking autonomous cars so that they don’t have to manually drive the vehicles and kill themsleves
While driverless vehicles would be nice for say long trips, there is a lot that can and will go wrong- Good idea, too difficult to implement I think?
Yes
Starting pay per mile for a CDL is .50ish cents a mile. The drive 10 hours a day averaging 60 mph that’s $300 per day. If they work 5 days a week that’s $1500 a week, an assuming 2 weeks off. 75k a year.
There are over 4.5 million drivers in the US.
That’s about $337,500,000,000 annually assuming they were all being paid the minimum
Reality most are paid more
So yes, looking at probably well over a 1/2 a trillion or more in savings if drivers are no longer needed.
Robot “teamsters”. The union thugs are going to play hell getting robots to join their “unions” and pay dues. robots are tightwads. Robots! Doing the jobs Americans don’t want to do. They’re all up at the Yellowstone petting zoo playing with the buffalo and Grizz.
Yeah they are, but now you’re adding in extra failure points to add to the issue of error. So much computer controlled stuff increases chances of failure i would think.
I guess it remains to be seen which is worse, human error or computer error which leads to accidents/deaths. Stats will be out in a few years to compare
“Tech is a massive destructive force in society”
It’s called ‘creative destruction’ which has, generally, provided more diversity in the job market and more jobs as a result. I don’t want to go back to being having blacksmiths and horses.
Sure, but the mobs of unemployed and unemployable goblins and orcs will continue growing. The siren call of universal income will echo thru out. The push for global wage arbitrage via tech and offshoring has led to some of the problems we face now, that will only increase. Education can take you far, but that is not a immunity to such innovations.
All of the above.
Rarely have I ever been scared to think I wasn’t going to make it. When I was taking my CDL class, I was that scared. Poor fella couldn’t get the truck out of first gear.
And there are many like him. Toss in the shortages and their willingness to work for peanuts. Easy to work for peanuts when you live with 15 of your relatives and all expenses are shared in addition to the women of the house getting all sorts of benefits for the US citizens they popped out at the nearest hospital.
Idle Hands are the Devil’s Workshop.
Yah, that is the biggest down side to this (another ) crap technology.
So what if there are cameras? They can be wiped or simply ignored after you torch the truck. Just throw caltrops across the road to stop the truck. Empty it and burn it. No worries about injury.
“Developing” such tech is of importance only ‘cause it results in a big bucket of tosh — which is skimmed.
That the bucket is filled with just-printed currency “free” from the US taxpayer is not an issue — at least not with the criminals in charge.
I see this as a great boon for passenger cars, and of course, a bust for truck drivers.
I drive regularly on the Dallas-to-Memphis interstates. The many trucks there are a royal pain. Traffic runs relatively smoothly UNTIL I reach a truck driving a tenth of a mile faster than another truck that it is passing. This bottles up dozens of cars for sometimes as long as 5 miles, with another five to clear again. By the time the road clears, another such event occurs. Meanwhile, I will pass truck stops crowded full of trucks which have reached the mandatory driving time limits.
Just imagine how much faster everyone would go if the trucks were all going the same speed, leaving space between them for passing, with no mandatory drive time limits? Truck deliveries would be much-much faster, and passenger cars would be faster, and less frustrating as well.
An 80,000lb vehicle controlled in this manner - autonomously - becomes a device, and is hackable. The right people wouldn’t even consider it difficult.
So what oversight and accountability will be implemented at the control level? Probably little to none.
Autonomous vehicles will kill innocent people, either by accident - (malfunctioning) - or on purpose (hacked or bad design). Either way the driving public loses.
.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.