> How does the self driving truck put chains on the tires at the designated chain pull-outs and then remove them when the LED road signs say to do so? The cyni

> How does the self driving truck put chains on the tires at the designated chain pull-outs and then remove them when the LED road signs say to do so? The cynic in me says that these private companies will somehow lobby to coerce public servants (DOT workers) to do this job for them via safety regulation. There are also automated chain solutions, but those would require the trucking companies to invest. To your first question - isn't this the point of automation? The majority of trucking is boring work driving down a road in decent conditions; take that away and you can make your truckers a lot more productive. The question then becomes, who gets the benefit of that productivity increase? In the last half century or so the answer is the owner of the capital. Also, this is a job where someone can fairly quickly go from unskilled to skilled with a middle class income. While I suspect that current truckers will be able to maintain employment for the rest of their careers by serving as expert drivers who can work in situations where automation cannot, I wonder if the career will be available/attractive to younger generations. The truth is that large scale automated vehicles could be a godsend or a curse depending on how we as a society regulate them, but I don't believe we are on a happy path in that regard.