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Well first research field of automated warehouse is hudge and so it’s very reductive to think that what happens after the truck is the easiest part. Secondly t

Well first research field of automated warehouse is hudge and so it’s very reductive to think that what happens after the truck is the easiest part. Secondly truck driver usually are in charge of the final delivery to shop or customer and have to deliver good to buildings that are not by any mean standardized. Having a human on board that know how to operate the truck and how to properly unload it is a feature that will probably be missed out. As It would be pretty unwise IMHO to rely on external people to "not fuck up" when handling heavy objects around a costly automated truck. So maybe I am totally wrong, but if we concentrate our current R&D on building expensive automated truck so that we can reduce cost by firing driver... Instead of focusing our R&D on producing more economic and ecological truck and alternative transportation... we might as well be fucked up as a specie.

tjoff 9y ago
Well, obviously the truck driver won't be in charge of the final delivery, and if the buildings are not by any mean standardized then don't use an automated truck or do standardize that location. Simple as that. > As It would be pretty unwise IMHO to rely on external people to "not fuck up" when handling heavy objects around a costly automated truck. I agree that this will be an issue and the people on the ground would need to be educated. But I hope you don't think this problem is unsolvable in practice. We somehow do it for aircrafts (I don't think the pilot does the actual leg work there).
- Twisell 9y ago
  "standardize that location. Simple as that." Again that’s nor simple neither cost effective by any mean. Your are dealing with a lot of externalities here. Logistics is a chain, you can’t replace a link and expect that the others will magically adapt to the new element. It’s like an API you can’t expect users to be happy if you break all compatibility for the sake of progress. And again for API only software have to be adapted which is far easier than hardware. I don’t doubt than sometimes in the future when all the caveheats will have been addressed and that some standard will have been defined yes you will have automated trucks. But it’s not simple and I don’t see them comming before at least 15 years and in any case after passengers automated cars.
  - tjoff 9y ago
    If the economics don't work out, don't do it. This won't be an over night transformation but rather decades. You start where the circumstances are beneficial. Perhaps the first to adopt this would be postal services and large stores with many outlets throughout a country with their own trucks that do the same route every day. They have control over each destination and it would most likely be easier work alongside existing logistics and everything is kept within the same company.
    - Twisell 9y ago
      On that we agree I was just pointing out that it’s not as simple as you initialy thought. And sorry if I’ve being boring it’s a deformation from Geography my first scholarship. Geographers tends to focus on systemic interaction rather than on individual components.

tjoff 9y ago

Well, obviously the truck driver won't be in charge of the final delivery, and if the buildings are not by any mean standardized then don't use an automated truck or do standardize that location. Simple as that. > As It would be pretty unwise IMHO to rely on external people to "not fuck up" when handling heavy objects around a costly automated truck. I agree that this will be an issue and the people on the ground would need to be educated. But I hope you don't think this problem is unsolvable in practice. We somehow do it for aircrafts (I don't think the pilot does the actual leg work there).

Twisell 9y ago
"standardize that location. Simple as that." Again that’s nor simple neither cost effective by any mean. Your are dealing with a lot of externalities here. Logistics is a chain, you can’t replace a link and expect that the others will magically adapt to the new element. It’s like an API you can’t expect users to be happy if you break all compatibility for the sake of progress. And again for API only software have to be adapted which is far easier than hardware. I don’t doubt than sometimes in the future when all the caveheats will have been addressed and that some standard will have been defined yes you will have automated trucks. But it’s not simple and I don’t see them comming before at least 15 years and in any case after passengers automated cars.
- tjoff 9y ago
  If the economics don't work out, don't do it. This won't be an over night transformation but rather decades. You start where the circumstances are beneficial. Perhaps the first to adopt this would be postal services and large stores with many outlets throughout a country with their own trucks that do the same route every day. They have control over each destination and it would most likely be easier work alongside existing logistics and everything is kept within the same company.
  - Twisell 9y ago
    On that we agree I was just pointing out that it’s not as simple as you initialy thought. And sorry if I’ve being boring it’s a deformation from Geography my first scholarship. Geographers tends to focus on systemic interaction rather than on individual components.