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I really don't see why autonomous vehicles couldn't handle the first/last miles soon after mastering the open road. I think only regulation would made this a re

by jabits 9y ago

I really don't see why autonomous vehicles couldn't handle the first/last miles soon after mastering the open road. I think only regulation would made this a requirement.

semi-extrinsic 9y ago
For trucks that don't follow the same routes every day (e.g. FedEx/UPS/etc.), even humans frequently have a hard time getting it right. "Oh, no, it's the other side of that bridge that's only for light vehicles. Yes, you'll have to drive around for two miles in heavy traffic to get here. No, it's the entrance on the back facing the tall green building." Etc...
moftz 9y ago
Until AI for vehicles massively increases, humans are going to be better at navigating the truck through smaller roads, abiding by weight restrictions that may not already be known about, having local knowledge of the area that AI might not have. Every delivery location is going to be a little different so you would need a really general AI to understand how to just get the truck up to the loading dock (if you are that lucky). The long haul portion of the journey is much more suited to the AI of today, cars already have enough tech to get this done with pretty good results.
- sigstoat 9y ago
  > Every delivery location is going to be a little different so you would need a really general AI to understand how to just get the truck up to the loading dock (if you are that lucky). or, as someone with a loading dock, i'd be willing to pay to have someone come out with a bunch of lidar gear and whatever to model up my dock and surrounding area, so i could just provide a big data blob about my dock to the shipping companies, and have their AI trucks pull in correctly every time. as opposed to worrying about the days when some new guy (with his local knowledge and general intelligence) shows up to deliver and comes in the wrong way and gets stuck for 2 hours. (there's a new job for you right there, folks, since the model will probably need to be updated every year or two as the shipping companies change their AIs, and changes are made to the surrounding buildings.)
simonh 9y ago
I expect many regular delivery end points will get set up with autonomous vehicle standardised parking bays, with programmed routes in and out added to the AI mapping databases. If you don’t have one of those, you’ll need to pay a premium for driver operated delivery or remote driver guidance.
djrogers 9y ago
One word - teamsters.

by jabits 9y ago

I really don't see why autonomous vehicles couldn't handle the first/last miles soon after mastering the open road. I think only regulation would made this a requirement.

semi-extrinsic 9y ago

For trucks that don't follow the same routes every day (e.g. FedEx/UPS/etc.), even humans frequently have a hard time getting it right. "Oh, no, it's the other side of that bridge that's only for light vehicles. Yes, you'll have to drive around for two miles in heavy traffic to get here. No, it's the entrance on the back facing the tall green building." Etc...

moftz 9y ago

Until AI for vehicles massively increases, humans are going to be better at navigating the truck through smaller roads, abiding by weight restrictions that may not already be known about, having local knowledge of the area that AI might not have. Every delivery location is going to be a little different so you would need a really general AI to understand how to just get the truck up to the loading dock (if you are that lucky). The long haul portion of the journey is much more suited to the AI of today, cars already have enough tech to get this done with pretty good results.

sigstoat 9y ago
> Every delivery location is going to be a little different so you would need a really general AI to understand how to just get the truck up to the loading dock (if you are that lucky). or, as someone with a loading dock, i'd be willing to pay to have someone come out with a bunch of lidar gear and whatever to model up my dock and surrounding area, so i could just provide a big data blob about my dock to the shipping companies, and have their AI trucks pull in correctly every time. as opposed to worrying about the days when some new guy (with his local knowledge and general intelligence) shows up to deliver and comes in the wrong way and gets stuck for 2 hours. (there's a new job for you right there, folks, since the model will probably need to be updated every year or two as the shipping companies change their AIs, and changes are made to the surrounding buildings.)

simonh 9y ago

I expect many regular delivery end points will get set up with autonomous vehicle standardised parking bays, with programmed routes in and out added to the AI mapping databases. If you don’t have one of those, you’ll need to pay a premium for driver operated delivery or remote driver guidance.

djrogers 9y ago

One word - teamsters.