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If you think the only role of a truck driver is to steer and press the pedals you are terribly mistaken. That is the easy part to automate.

jchendy 11y ago
What's the hard part?
- masklinn 11y ago
  Navigating the endpoint/dock/whatever.
  - michaelbuckbee 11y ago
    This makes me think that we'll end up with truck drivers who are more like tugboat captains. They know their distribution center and as automated trucks come in and park on the edge, they then do the fiddly work of getting it lined up at the right time to the right loading bay.
  - tombrossman 11y ago
    I disagree. That could be automated exactly like 'self-parking cars' which has been a feature in some luxury cars for a while now. The most challenging part mentally is accurate trip planning. Drivers try to predict exactly when to move to ensure an on-time delivery and have too many variables to do this with high accuracy. Then they will typically falsify logs and run illegally to make the logs match the date and time stamped documentation (toll reciepts, times stamped on delivery reciepts, etc). I think that you'll find large trucking companies are happy to keep using cheap expendable labor, who will willingly bend the rules, as this gives the companies the plausible deniability they want.
Shivetya 11y ago
for many package companies, think UPS/FedEx the automation of the long haul combined with automated yard facilities will certain come to bear. The loading and unloading occurs once the trailer is parked and that parking and moving to staging can be automated as well; providing the union agrees. however many truck drivers usually are tasked with loading and unloading their trailers, most likely to occur when flat beds are picking up special cargo. Movers also tend to be part of the work crew as well. More than one friend has ventured in trucking only to return when they realized the amount of hard labor, if not dangerous labor they faced.

jchendy 11y ago

What's the hard part?

masklinn 11y ago
Navigating the endpoint/dock/whatever.
- michaelbuckbee 11y ago
  This makes me think that we'll end up with truck drivers who are more like tugboat captains. They know their distribution center and as automated trucks come in and park on the edge, they then do the fiddly work of getting it lined up at the right time to the right loading bay.
- tombrossman 11y ago
  I disagree. That could be automated exactly like 'self-parking cars' which has been a feature in some luxury cars for a while now. The most challenging part mentally is accurate trip planning. Drivers try to predict exactly when to move to ensure an on-time delivery and have too many variables to do this with high accuracy. Then they will typically falsify logs and run illegally to make the logs match the date and time stamped documentation (toll reciepts, times stamped on delivery reciepts, etc). I think that you'll find large trucking companies are happy to keep using cheap expendable labor, who will willingly bend the rules, as this gives the companies the plausible deniability they want.

Shivetya 11y ago

for many package companies, think UPS/FedEx the automation of the long haul combined with automated yard facilities will certain come to bear. The loading and unloading occurs once the trailer is parked and that parking and moving to staging can be automated as well; providing the union agrees. however many truck drivers usually are tasked with loading and unloading their trailers, most likely to occur when flat beds are picking up special cargo. Movers also tend to be part of the work crew as well. More than one friend has ventured in trucking only to return when they realized the amount of hard labor, if not dangerous labor they faced.