4 ms·

I totally agree that driverless trucks are the future, but I don't think it will come easy. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is one of the largest u

by fvrghl 13y ago

I totally agree that driverless trucks are the future, but I don't think it will come easy. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is one of the largest unions in North America, and one of the most politically powerful. I think that they will fight this with everything they have to keep humans getting paychecks.

dnautics 13y ago
yet, it already exists. http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-fast-news?oid=207450&sn=Detail http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-fast-news?...
dlsx 13y ago
Except the power of going on strike has been completely disintegrated with an automated fleet of trucks sitting back ready to be deployed. Disruption will come, and they won't be able to stop it.
- alexeisadeski3 13y ago
  He's not referring to a strike, but to politics.
  - cinquemb 13y ago
    Because strikes have never been used as political tools by organized labor groups…
    - alexeisadeski3 13y ago
      All cats are mammals but not all mammals are cats.
      - cinquemb 13y ago
        Nothing like a persuasive comment to save the increasing obsolescence of human labor applied in the aforementioned way from the automated chopping block…
modeless 13y ago
Exactly. One of the main barriers to the adoption of driverless cars is going to be politics. Starting off by threatening a bunch of unionized jobs would be political suicide. I can see the political cartoons now: Terminators with glowing red eyes driving trucks, running down crowds of helpless union members.
exit 13y ago
i hope the shock of all taxi/trucking/pizza delivery/etc jobs being eliminated leads to a substantial rethinking of employment in general http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income
fricken4 13y ago
The number of longshoremen needed to run a modern port has decreased by a factor of 10 over the last 30 or 40 years. Because of their strong unions, the one's who remain get paid very well. Unions don't really have a strong bargaining chip once their labour is no longer needed.

by fvrghl 13y ago

dnautics 13y ago

yet, it already exists. http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-fast-news?oid=207450&sn=Detail http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-fast-news?...

dlsx 13y ago

Except the power of going on strike has been completely disintegrated with an automated fleet of trucks sitting back ready to be deployed. Disruption will come, and they won't be able to stop it.

alexeisadeski3 13y ago
He's not referring to a strike, but to politics.
- cinquemb 13y ago
  Because strikes have never been used as political tools by organized labor groups…
  - alexeisadeski3 13y ago
    All cats are mammals but not all mammals are cats.
    - cinquemb 13y ago
      Nothing like a persuasive comment to save the increasing obsolescence of human labor applied in the aforementioned way from the automated chopping block…

modeless 13y ago

Exactly. One of the main barriers to the adoption of driverless cars is going to be politics. Starting off by threatening a bunch of unionized jobs would be political suicide. I can see the political cartoons now: Terminators with glowing red eyes driving trucks, running down crowds of helpless union members.

exit 13y ago

i hope the shock of all taxi/trucking/pizza delivery/etc jobs being eliminated leads to a substantial rethinking of employment in general http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income

fricken4 13y ago

The number of longshoremen needed to run a modern port has decreased by a factor of 10 over the last 30 or 40 years. Because of their strong unions, the one's who remain get paid very well. Unions don't really have a strong bargaining chip once their labour is no longer needed.