Im pretty sure the law still requires there to be a driver present, so they'll still have jobs. Drivers who dont own their trucks will probably have to take a pay cut though..
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Budweiser & Otto complete world's first shipment by a self-driving truck in Colorado
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I immediately thought of this Simpsons episode when I saw the thread.
Tallshortman
Member
There's a shortage of long haul drivers. The pay can be quite good so its that there's noy enough people willing to do these jobs. Autonomous driving interest was inevitable.
Besides like others have said it will be many years before legislation allows actual driverless trucks. There will have to be a driver present in case of emergency.
Besides like others have said it will be many years before legislation allows actual driverless trucks. There will have to be a driver present in case of emergency.
Saucycarpdog
Member
What have you done......
I really don't think automation is as far advanced as to completely replace manual labour in the next 20 and even 30 years. Work requiring any sort of mobility and deft use of hands not on a production line will still need people to carry out as I think robotics technology is still in its nascency in that area. So the trades for example. There's also work where human to human interaction is important even if it can be automated. These are not exactly unskilled professions but present a lower bar to entry than say computer science/engineering. Hopefully the next few decades allows people and governments enough time to focus on and pursue other opportunities while existing workers can retain their jobs during the transition process, a period of augmentation rather than complete automation.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
So mostly end up on welfare or chronically underemployed plus hooked on synthetic heroin because it's hard to retrain as a full-stack devops black belt when you're 50 and dropped out of ninth grade, but we don't notice because a) they all live in flyover states so who cares and b) you don't count towards unemployment numbers when you stop looking for work. U S A
See, at least one person gets it.
I do think it would make sense to have government investment in retraining employees in now obsolete fields, but I don't think that would ever pass congress.
Once we automate the drug dealers things will start to be looking up.
Azure Dream
Member
As much as it sucks that a lot of people will go out of work, and that will be a huge problem we'll have to deal with, we shouldn't outlaw progress because it may limit or end jobs related to it. I just hope there's a good plan (government or otherwise) for how to retrain the people that will be inevitably displaced by this.
robbing an actual truck also adds more dangers to the thieves as many truck drivers carry guns. also i imagine there are more charges added to robbing trucks with drivers in them. one being armed robbery.
They can drive for Uber.
So I should probably take this opportunity to point out that Otto is owned by Uber.
Charles Brandon
Member
Luddites.txt
LegendofJoe
Member
It's a joke that free job retraining for folks employed in obsolete industries isn't an automatic, assumed part of life.
Giant Panda
Member
Sorry, but holding back on implementing new technology that improves efficiency because it causes some jobs loses would mean no new tech would ever be adopted.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
I don't think anyone serious is arguing about trying to wrangle a cat back into a bag and pretend it's a suckling pig--rather, automation presents an immediate and dramatic need to refocus governance around the provision of a cradle to grave social safety net to prevent people from being left behind.
This is why guaranteed income and free education down the line is so important. Its the only thing that can push society to higher education while labor and service jobs are all automated. Unfortunately Bernie was the only one pushing for this..
new technology is great, it frees people to do better things. nobody is arguing that. I'm asking what millions of blue-collar workers will do in a country that has all but abandoned them? "get a new career" doing what? are they all going to become lawyers? It isn't just them either it's their families (drivers earn a decent amount), the towns, cities. Look at places that have fallen apart because jobs disappeared and were replaced with nothing.
Giant Panda
Member
I agree, but there was already someone in this very thread wanting to outlaw this, and I imagine other truck drivers might try the same.
The change will be painful and there will be people who get left behind. Like others have mentioned, things like free education / healthcare / guaranteed living wage can help ease the pain, assuming the political climate allows for these things to come to fruition.
Any solution that attempts to slow or halt the progress for automation is not an option, IMO.
Any solution that attempts to slow or halt the progress for automation is not an option, IMO.
Probably will have security if any Windows broken, trailer detached, trailer door open, that will call the police faster than a truck driver would.
Also, you could bribe a truck driver and not a computer.
I guess you could hack a computer though.
I think most likely scenario is truck drivers shooting out the tires of these things to preserve their jobs.
Skellig Gra
Member
Call me naive to Colorado laws but are self driving cars even legal for commercial use?
same here
And there is a massive shortage of truck drivers that's getting worse every year. Driverless is going to happen sooner then later
You mean turning left across a highway? Pretty sure a truck can handle that.
RiccochetJ
Gold Member
Why are people suddenly assuming that these vehicles will suddenly no longer be manned? Airplanes have had autopilot for decades and you still need pilots to take off and land.
Based off the article, the autopilot was used for the interstate portion. A driver was still required at the start and the end. Also the I-25 from Ft. Collins to Colorado Springs is as straight of a piece of road as you're going to get.
If anything, I see drivers having to become even more educated and specialized due to the complexity that this new technology is introducing.
I think it's really cool.
Based off the article, the autopilot was used for the interstate portion. A driver was still required at the start and the end. Also the I-25 from Ft. Collins to Colorado Springs is as straight of a piece of road as you're going to get.
If anything, I see drivers having to become even more educated and specialized due to the complexity that this new technology is introducing.
I think it's really cool.
Are many people actually thinking that? It seems more to me that people realize that eventually these vehicles will not be manned, with many assuming "eventually" could easily occur within a shorter time frame of say 5-10 years.
There was an NPR story specific to shipping trucks being first to see widespread implementation of driverless tech because they spend most of their time on highways. Drivers will still exist in the cab in the case of any issues and for better dealing with the last leg of deliveries. Just expect to see more and more of these on the roads real soon.
We can only hope.
We can only hope.
This is a car, but no, my name is not Jack.
milanbaros
Member?
Why wouldn't the trucks be able to do the more difficult portions of driving?
That would be where it could be where autonomous driving is at its best.
I do think they will initially have vehicle assistants for the first few years but the trend will be fully autonomous.
I don't think a driver is the correct theft deterrent as it can put him/her in danger.
Much better having on board cameras, direct link to security center, secure freight cages, drones to follow assailants etc.
Planes are a bit different in this case since they are in the air when the autopilot is on. When you're on the ground you have the luxury of picking up and dropping off drivers. Trucks could simply do the highway stretches unmanned and end up at regional depots where they could be piloted into urban areas. Hell, even smaller delivery trucks could break up the shipments and take the cargo the last 20 miles.
Regulus Tera
Romanes Eunt Domus
Automation is inevitable regardless of how many jobs it destroys.
hydrophilic attack
Member
The good thing about this experiment is that if it had failed, nothing of value would have been lost
opticalmace
Member
So what happens if one of the front tires blows out? Is the system able to make decisions about emergency reactions (i.e. avoid crossing into oncoming traffic possibly at the expense of hitting another vehicle near you)?
There truly is a Simpsons picture for everything.
Word. Trade education could be a real boon to states where obsoletion has forced a lot of people out of jobs, especially when paired with the creation and maintenance of new forms of power and transport. But republicans ain't trying to hear that shit. It's all "oil oil oil and windfarms are ugly".
If it's anything like Tesla's trials, yes.
The problem then being someone has to go GET it.
You don't see anything of value in a technology which has the potential to make hauling and freight transport safer? There is a cost associated with this sure but that can be mitigated with the right plans and policy. I would say there's still one generations worth of time before the transition is complete which should ideally give truck drivers enough time to adapt and look towards other avenues (with corporate and government support of course).
Edit: V V Oh right...
The joke is that budlight sucks.
beautiful ~disruption~
WorriedCitizen
Member
Interesting times ahead. I don't believe that the advances in technology will create as many new jobs as they destroy old ones this time round because all professions are susceptible to automatization and digitalization.
I guess the big question for the next generation (if not our generation actualy) will be how to redistribute wealth from the machines to the people. Have a feeling that no party or politician around the world wants to make a serious effort to touch that topic in the foreseeable future what with all the big corporation lobbyism and so on.
I guess the big question for the next generation (if not our generation actualy) will be how to redistribute wealth from the machines to the people. Have a feeling that no party or politician around the world wants to make a serious effort to touch that topic in the foreseeable future what with all the big corporation lobbyism and so on.
For our generation and maybe the next one, wealth distribution will continue on the "fuck you I got mine" system where the people owning the machines will get 100% of the profits, and all sorts of legal loopholes will exist to allow them to put as little of that as possible into social services.
Down the road, I think that social pressures will force the issue, and the financial system will need a radical overhaul.
Shipping companies will see their costs drop dramatically (after an initial large investment in self-driving trucks). The obvious solution to the unemployment and redundancy crisis which is looming in the face of automation is to increase corporate taxes and redistribute wealth in the form of a basic income.
Automation will likely increase the overall level of income in the economy, but greatly increase inequality because all the extra wealth will fall to the owners of these companies implementing automation. Political pressure for redistribution will inevitably increase over time but certain political parties have become very talented at convincing their supporters that welfare is evil and that it's actually foreigners and globalization that is to blame for their poverty.
Interesting times ahead.
Automation will likely increase the overall level of income in the economy, but greatly increase inequality because all the extra wealth will fall to the owners of these companies implementing automation. Political pressure for redistribution will inevitably increase over time but certain political parties have become very talented at convincing their supporters that welfare is evil and that it's actually foreigners and globalization that is to blame for their poverty.
Interesting times ahead.
WaffleTaco
Wants to outlaw technological innovation.
Nope, actually going to law school.
Yup, an extremely common job. And truck drivers aren't the only thing that will be automated. Automation is the biggest threat to jobs in this country, and the only people it is going to help is shareholders, upper-middle class and up, and corporations themselves. It is literally going to be a war from the rich on the poor. It's classist and unfortunately a lot of people are going to suffer. There is no amount of jobs that can replace this many people at once, there are not enough high paying jobs that simply going to college will help.
milanbaros
Member?
A simple approach could be to give every new born a $10k tracker fund in a tax free wrapper. At 18 they receive the dividends from this fund (to provide the wealth from automation) and over time it would act as retirement vehicle.
This is all true. However making automation illegal is not the answer. Companies would simply move whatever manufacturing they can to countries where automation is legal. Obviously you can't do that for drivers, but such 'protected jobs' would only face more downward wage pressure from the swathes of people trying to get into that industry.
Automation is coming. Trying to slow it is not the answer, but sadly that is more likely than governments implementing basic income.
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