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The driverless truck is coming, and it’s going to automate millions of jobs

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Re: The driverless truck is coming, and it’s going to automate millions of jobs

#201

Post by thedogeye »

UVB-76 wrote: post #159
dv_dt wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given that an automated truck will follow a certain safety framework, it's interesting to contemplate if there might be automated truck pirates. Jam mobile connectivity, run the truck off the road by herding it with other vehicles, then break in and run-away with the goods or the entire trailer for that matter.

This is one of many reasons we will still need humans present, if only in a guard capacity.

Your house sits empty all day and nobody robs it. Video cameras work pretty well for this if it becomes a problem. Great to live in a country with rule of law.

Re: The driverless truck is coming, and it’s going to automate millions of jobs

#202

Post by ommunist »

The author forgot to mention that it will be Russian, and produced by KAMAZ. http://sputniknews.com/science/20151006/1028104950/kamaz-dri... . Mind the muzzak on 0:51 in video.

UPD: it appears Russians also have Gazelle for small business already driverless and capable to drive on Russian "roads" in rural regions. https://ninja.oximity.com/article/Russia-ready-for-driverles...

Re: The driverless truck is coming, and it’s going to automate millions of jobs

#203

Post by massysett »

mantas wrote: post #198
JonoW wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article mentions driverless trucks would drive slower, at 45mph, wouldn't this make a key difference in this scenario, eg a much shorter breaking distance. Also, a driverless vehicle has one option a manned vehicle doesn't - self destruction to save life, eg drive off the side of the road and crash (assuming it could determine that no one was there)

That'd be a disaster on single-lane roads. Even with human trucks and their help (signalling if road is clear, driving on the shoulder when possible etc), it sucks to overtake them. If trucks were limited to 70km/h, there'd be much more need to overtake them. Which would either cause either traffic congestion or more drivers doing reckless things. Let alone that non-driverless trucks/buses/campers/etc would be stuck…

I imagine they would start out only on multi-lane, limited-access highways. The small number of entry and exit points would make it much easier to program the truck. Such roads carry the bulk of long-distance truck traffic anyway.

Re: The driverless truck is coming, and it’s going to automate millions of jobs

#205

Post by astannard »

Maybe we will get hubs initially where humans make the small journey to their local hub A with a some standardized container load, then the robots take over loading it onto a robot road train as designated by the software for the long haul and another human picks up the consignment from hub B and takes it to the recipient? All the hubs are next to a highway.

Re: The driverless truck is coming, and it’s going to automate millions of jobs

#206

Post by [deleted] »

pm24601 wrote: post #192
djrogers wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not quietly, no, but it's no less inevitable. History is full of jobs that have been automated away, and few of those historical examples offered a more obvious and large payoff.

I do notice you are avoiding my central point: With railroads, there is not an economic incentive for automation. One commentator suggested that driverless trucks would have to be separated from human drivers. Railroads have this thing called "tracks" Another suggested the wonderful advantage of a driverless truck not getting into accidents. Railroads have an excellent safety record. Driverless trucks as a way to red…

[deleted]

Re: The driverless truck is coming, and it’s going to automate millions of jobs

#207

Post by TheLogothete »

FussyZeus wrote: post #141
Homunculiheaded wrote: post #103

A very useful visual to add next to this is "The Most Common Job In Every State"[0] map from NPR's Planet Money. As soon as I was aware of the research in autonomous driving I was pretty confident trucking would be the first industry hit. Until I saw that map I had no sense of how major of a disruption this could be. [0] http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/02/05/382664837/map-t...

Disruption nothing, this is going to be an economic apocalypse for huge swathes of the country. We've never seen an automation wave like this one. It's exciting times to be alive for sure but I'm also legitimately worried if we're going to be able to handle it as a society, if anything is going to tip us into needing basic income, this could be a serious contender. It's not even just the trucking, it's truck stops, h…

Yeah, it's not like this has happened ever before. We definitely need basic income. It will solve all the problems.

Re: The driverless truck is coming, and it’s going to automate millions of jobs

#208

Post by lmm »

mschuster91 wrote: post #19
thescriptkiddie wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the last mile is where driverless trucks are most useful. For long haul, you can just use trains.

> For long haul, you can just use trains. RoLa (Rollende Landstraße) as we call this in Germany, or just transporting the flatbed carriages, requires a SHITLOAD of manual work, unlike containers where you don't even need people on the locos in the yard anymore. Not to mention that long-haul-via-rail is only viable in the US... in Europe, it virtually doesn't exist anymore. It just isn't profitable due to various exte…

ETCS is coming - it may take twenty years to be rolled out everywhere but it will happen. In the meantime they're focusing on the strategic routes first. These things take time, but it is happening.

Re: The driverless truck is coming, and it’s going to automate millions of jobs

#209

Post by TheLogothete »

knieveltech wrote: post #29
_RPM wrote: post #24

I really don't think this will happen in my lifetime. Could the whole robot drives car really evolve to replace the current state? I'm not sure that can happen over night.

The technology already exists. We're there.

Because of a single experiment in highly controlled environment :) Please come back to earth.

Re: The driverless truck is coming, and it’s going to automate millions of jobs

#210

Post by kbart »

danarlow wrote: post #132
braythwayt wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But here’s the question: Do these ‘last mile’ drivers sit in the cab? Or operate the rigs from thousands of miles away, like drone pilots, with displays showing 360 degrees around the rig and access to all of its sensors? Last mile driving may not look anything like truck driving.

Definitely can't remotely operate a 40 ton truck. Wireless network latency is a bit high even under ideal conditions, and latency spikes could easily cause disastrous accidents.

If you can pilot flying killing machines half the world away, you can definitely control a slow moving truck remotely.
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