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Barring major infrastructure and cultural changes, or general purpose ambulatory robots, delivery trucks will still need humans on board to handle the delivery
by jccooper 10y ago
Barring major infrastructure and cultural changes, or general purpose ambulatory robots, delivery trucks will still need humans on board to handle the delivery (and pickup) part. No self-driving car is delivering to the seventh floor, and I'm certainly not operating the lift gate myself for LTL pallet deliveries.
That's a pretty fair part of the commercial fleet, though vehicles with self-mobile cargo (taxis) or dedicated handlers on each end (long haul) are quite amenable to automation.
- rch 10y agoSo last-mile service is becoming last-yard service. That's a good way to think of it because these will be subsistence jobs, or slightly below. Employees will no longer need a commercial license, or even a clean driving record.
- enraged_camel 10y ago>>Barring major infrastructure and cultural changes, or general purpose ambulatory robots, delivery trucks will still need humans on board to handle the delivery (and pickup) part. Sure, but those humans won't be needed during the vast majority of the trip. The truck can make a pit stop at a "last mile" facility to pick up the human loaders/unloaders (who can be minimum wage temps).
- eksemplar 10y agoI think we're going to see some innovating in the mailbox and/or the front door as well. I mean who really wants to accept a package when it could be automated.
- subhobroto 10y ago> delivery trucks will still need humans on board to handle the delivery (and pickup) part. No self-driving car is delivering to the seventh floor Good point. Sure, there will be human intervention required for edge cases but it will be humans augmenting technology, not technology augmenting humans in transportation. I expanded in my comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13230336 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13230336
- the8472 10y ago> and I'm certainly not operating the lift gate myself for LTL pallet deliveries. Add an automated forklift to the automated truck?
- Eridrus 10y agoI think one of the first things that will happen with self driving trucks will be that we essentially get around the limit on how long a truck driver can be on the road without a break since they will be able to sleep in the truck. That might be the end state for the foreseeable future, but as others have said that person no longer needs to be a driver, just someone to load and unload. At some point we'll begin to ask the question of whether it's worth paying someone to travel around with the truck, or if we'd prefer the cost savings. If you're a white collar place ordering heavy equipment you'll probably just pay the guy, but if you're a warehouse you already have a pile of people who can handle that.
- notatoad 10y agothis claim that because a robot can't do 100% of a job, they won't take over that job seems to pop up in every discussion about automation. If the only thing you need a human for is to handle the delivery from the ground floor to the seventh floor, or to roll a pallet onto the back of the truck, you've eliminated 99% of the job. and if you've eliminated most of the work the job requires, that means you need a lot fewer people, and they need less skill and training and will be paid less. one junior staffer in every office being tasked to go down to the loading bay and check for packages after lunch each day is not a major infrastructure change.
- namlem 10y agoWell it's not like we haven't been making progress on general purpose ambulatory robots. Have you seen what some of Google's subsidiaries have built?