AI-controlled trucks can drive nearly bumper-to-bumper, because there needn't be any reaction-time delay. If the lead truck hits the brakes, every other truck i

AI-controlled trucks can drive nearly bumper-to-bumper, because there needn't be any reaction-time delay. If the lead truck hits the brakes, every other truck in the column can brake instantly, and with exactly the same pressure. It effectively becomes a single road train with no space in between. Messy junctions can be avoided as long as you stay on the highway proper and don't pass through cities; with this plan, you'd have short-haul truckers at either end for the first-and-last mile work, with the AIs handling the cross-country part. As for accidents or malfunctions--why can't you stop a column of trucks in the breakdown lane? I'm assuming that the trucks would have at least limited self-parking ability, since that seems to be at least as easy as highway driving for a development standpoint.