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I have not thought much about robbing trucks before, but I disagree this is the same as a manned truck. I think it's much more like the difference between robb

I have not thought much about robbing trucks before, but I disagree this is the same as a manned truck. I think it's much more like the difference between robbing a house that is empty and a house while the owners are home. Most burglaries happen when nobody is home. Why would trucks be any different? Besides that, it is (likely) easier to trick an unmanned truck into stopping as OP mentioned. A person would easily recognize what's happening and it would be easier for him to just drive around the obstacle. It's not as easy to create an AI that can "think" around things like that. Besides that, I hear truck drivers are often armed. I would guess that punishment for property crimes is less severe than armed robbery against a person, but I don't actually know. In the grand scheme of things though, I think this is a negligible concern compared to all of the other problems self-driving trucks have to solve first.

tyfon 7y ago
The unmanned truck would likely be _crammed_ with cameras and other surveillance tools like hidden gps senders in the containers. It might initially be easier but I'm not sure if you would get very far with the stolen goods.
- knodi123 7y ago
  I used to work for a company that made long-life self-contained GPS locators, for commercial asset tracking. I remember how much we chortled ironically when a shipment of our devices was literally stolen by a hapless meth addict who noticed keys left in the ignition. Everyone was laughing because "ha, that idiot stole a thousand GPS trackers, he's the most tracked criminal ever!" But of course every single one of those trackers was in sleep mode, and the only tracking bug was not part of the shipment. Sure, he was caught red-handed within half an hour while a police dispatcher watched a moving dot on a google map, but he was only being tracked by a single device, and we had no way to remote-active the other thousand. Just an amusing related anecdote.
- BigBubbleButt 7y ago
  Set fire to the truck after you rob it to destroy any on-board evidence (like hard drives containing surveillance footage), only commit crimes in a wireless dead zone so no data is transmitted outside (or better yet, use a police stingray so you can do it anywhere), and put all cargo inside a faraday cage. Also I'm not sure there's any reason to believe those kind of security measures wouldn't already exist for a manned truck if the goods are expensive enough, so really it's the benefit of not having to deal with a person. I'd much rather do all that than kill an armed truck driver. Now that I actually am thinking about this more, I'd just get a sniper rifle and shoot the sensor units on the truck so it would be incapable of driving further (as opposed to throwing a mattress onto the road). But again, I'm not in the business of robbing trucks. I'm just saying I'd rather rob a robot than a person. I doubt robberies are a big concern for driverless trucks.
  - organsnyder 7y ago
    Life isn't like a movie. Anyone who has the knowledge (of the vehicle and its surveillance systems, the schedule, the cargo onboard...) and the capability (skills and resources) to pull off what you're suggesting has plenty of lucrative legal opportunities. And any cargo load valuable enough to make a Hollywood-style heist actually worthwhile would be transported by more secure means.
    - zp33 7y ago
      It doesn't take that much skill to know that a certain stretch of road doesn't have cell signal and how to set fire to a truck. It takes even less skill when you know there's no human on the truck to stop you
      - TeMPOraL 7y ago
        It may or may not work, but I have no doubt that someone will try.
  - HideousKojima 7y ago
    As soon as low orbit satellite internet services like Starlink are operational then you'll be out of luck, there won't be any more dead zones.
- fphhotchips 7y ago
  Also, every 10th truck probably has a guy with a shotgun in the back. More to the point, I think if we're trying to secure the use case of "truck the same as it has been for 30 years gets a black box put in it" we're doing it wrong. After not too long you just flat out won't be able to get in, even if you do stop the truck from moving. You won't be able to drive it anywhere - what need is there for a cab on an auto-truck?
silvestrov 7y ago
The problem is not doing the robbery itself. It's doing it again and again and again without being discovered/traced. Serial killers have it easy: they can bury the body. You can't bury goods you need to fence. At some point there will be a pattern.
- BigBubbleButt 7y ago
  I'm not saying robbing trucks is easy. I'm saying if I were to choose between robbing a manned truck vs an unmanned truck, I would definitely rob the unmanned truck.
  - jpadkins 7y ago
    why? the driver of the manned truck is going to comply just as willingly. No way they are going to put their life on the line (unless they own the cargo). The unmanned truck will cameras and video uploaded, which is stronger evidence than eye witness testimony. Also police response will be faster on unmanned (they can't call the police during the hold up, you can take the persons cell phone). No way you can stop the distress call from unmanned unless you had an EMP or something.
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      > No way you can stop the distress call from unmanned unless you had an EMP or something. Wouldn't be so certain. Jammers are illegal, but they aren't that hard to make.
    - zdragnar 7y ago
      If the truck is manned, it's robbery. If the truck is unmanned, it's burglary (or theft, since a truck isn't a building). They typically carry different penalties, and the difference is even more stark if you happen to have anything that could be considered a weapon on you when you do it.

tyfon 7y ago

The unmanned truck would likely be _crammed_ with cameras and other surveillance tools like hidden gps senders in the containers. It might initially be easier but I'm not sure if you would get very far with the stolen goods.

knodi123 7y ago
I used to work for a company that made long-life self-contained GPS locators, for commercial asset tracking. I remember how much we chortled ironically when a shipment of our devices was literally stolen by a hapless meth addict who noticed keys left in the ignition. Everyone was laughing because "ha, that idiot stole a thousand GPS trackers, he's the most tracked criminal ever!" But of course every single one of those trackers was in sleep mode, and the only tracking bug was not part of the shipment. Sure, he was caught red-handed within half an hour while a police dispatcher watched a moving dot on a google map, but he was only being tracked by a single device, and we had no way to remote-active the other thousand. Just an amusing related anecdote.
BigBubbleButt 7y ago
Set fire to the truck after you rob it to destroy any on-board evidence (like hard drives containing surveillance footage), only commit crimes in a wireless dead zone so no data is transmitted outside (or better yet, use a police stingray so you can do it anywhere), and put all cargo inside a faraday cage. Also I'm not sure there's any reason to believe those kind of security measures wouldn't already exist for a manned truck if the goods are expensive enough, so really it's the benefit of not having to deal with a person. I'd much rather do all that than kill an armed truck driver. Now that I actually am thinking about this more, I'd just get a sniper rifle and shoot the sensor units on the truck so it would be incapable of driving further (as opposed to throwing a mattress onto the road). But again, I'm not in the business of robbing trucks. I'm just saying I'd rather rob a robot than a person. I doubt robberies are a big concern for driverless trucks.
- organsnyder 7y ago
  Life isn't like a movie. Anyone who has the knowledge (of the vehicle and its surveillance systems, the schedule, the cargo onboard...) and the capability (skills and resources) to pull off what you're suggesting has plenty of lucrative legal opportunities. And any cargo load valuable enough to make a Hollywood-style heist actually worthwhile would be transported by more secure means.
  - zp33 7y ago
    It doesn't take that much skill to know that a certain stretch of road doesn't have cell signal and how to set fire to a truck. It takes even less skill when you know there's no human on the truck to stop you
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      It may or may not work, but I have no doubt that someone will try.
- HideousKojima 7y ago
  As soon as low orbit satellite internet services like Starlink are operational then you'll be out of luck, there won't be any more dead zones.
fphhotchips 7y ago
Also, every 10th truck probably has a guy with a shotgun in the back. More to the point, I think if we're trying to secure the use case of "truck the same as it has been for 30 years gets a black box put in it" we're doing it wrong. After not too long you just flat out won't be able to get in, even if you do stop the truck from moving. You won't be able to drive it anywhere - what need is there for a cab on an auto-truck?

silvestrov 7y ago

The problem is not doing the robbery itself. It's doing it again and again and again without being discovered/traced. Serial killers have it easy: they can bury the body. You can't bury goods you need to fence. At some point there will be a pattern.

BigBubbleButt 7y ago
I'm not saying robbing trucks is easy. I'm saying if I were to choose between robbing a manned truck vs an unmanned truck, I would definitely rob the unmanned truck.
- jpadkins 7y ago
  why? the driver of the manned truck is going to comply just as willingly. No way they are going to put their life on the line (unless they own the cargo). The unmanned truck will cameras and video uploaded, which is stronger evidence than eye witness testimony. Also police response will be faster on unmanned (they can't call the police during the hold up, you can take the persons cell phone). No way you can stop the distress call from unmanned unless you had an EMP or something.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    > No way you can stop the distress call from unmanned unless you had an EMP or something. Wouldn't be so certain. Jammers are illegal, but they aren't that hard to make.
  - zdragnar 7y ago
    If the truck is manned, it's robbery. If the truck is unmanned, it's burglary (or theft, since a truck isn't a building). They typically carry different penalties, and the difference is even more stark if you happen to have anything that could be considered a weapon on you when you do it.