3 ms·

Definitely not all truck driving, but an autonomous truck that's able to handle highway driving in good weather is a much easier problem that would put a signif

Definitely not all truck driving, but an autonomous truck that's able to handle highway driving in good weather is a much easier problem that would put a significant number of truck drivers out of work

gremlinsinc 6y ago
Yeah, all you need is one truck to lead a 'train' of autonomous trucks.. Think of the conductor/engineer being the truck in front, all other trucks ride so close to each other they cut down wind-sheer to save gas. At specific exits one truck will detach from the group, go to a staging area where a local driver finishes the last mile while the train keeps on going.
jjk166 6y ago
More likely the truck-driving model would change. Instead of having one employee who goes where the truck goes, you'd have employees who reside in or near shipping destinations and meet up with the trucks for loading/unloading/fueling/maintenance/etc. On the one hand a given number of employees could service many more trucks along a single route, decreasing labor requirements, but at the same time covering large numbers of routes may take more people, or companies may focus on a narrower set of routes, offering more opportunities for smaller shipping companies. Odds are the number of people doing truck-driving related work would stay roughly the same, but the total volume of shipping would go up.
- Ekaros 6y ago
  I really don't see any reason why there is need for humans on highways. That is inter-hub transports. Even more optimally we would have rail infra for this, but sadly that is not cost or space effective. I don't see humans going away for last 10 miles, that is delivery. Possible to make automatic, but there is an other layer of robots to be involved. And the environments like stores and private business in cities are much harder to design for this than hubs themselves.

3 ms·

Definitely not all truck driving, but an autonomous truck that's able to handle highway driving in good weather is a much easier problem that would put a signif

by albntomat0 6y ago

gremlinsinc 6y ago
Yeah, all you need is one truck to lead a 'train' of autonomous trucks.. Think of the conductor/engineer being the truck in front, all other trucks ride so close to each other they cut down wind-sheer to save gas. At specific exits one truck will detach from the group, go to a staging area where a local driver finishes the last mile while the train keeps on going.
jjk166 6y ago
More likely the truck-driving model would change. Instead of having one employee who goes where the truck goes, you'd have employees who reside in or near shipping destinations and meet up with the trucks for loading/unloading/fueling/maintenance/etc. On the one hand a given number of employees could service many more trucks along a single route, decreasing labor requirements, but at the same time covering large numbers of routes may take more people, or companies may focus on a narrower set of routes, offering more opportunities for smaller shipping companies. Odds are the number of people doing truck-driving related work would stay roughly the same, but the total volume of shipping would go up.
- Ekaros 6y ago
  I really don't see any reason why there is need for humans on highways. That is inter-hub transports. Even more optimally we would have rail infra for this, but sadly that is not cost or space effective. I don't see humans going away for last 10 miles, that is delivery. Possible to make automatic, but there is an other layer of robots to be involved. And the environments like stores and private business in cities are much harder to design for this than hubs themselves.