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Uber self-driving trucks are now moving cargo for Uber Freight customers

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Re: Uber self-driving trucks are now moving cargo for Uber Freight customers

#71

Post by BurningFrog »

djrogers wrote: post #49
lonelyw0lf wrote: post #42

The video ad is so crazy -- we still need a human to lock/unlock the cargo?? and its good for the truckers because they can go home early to their family?? The first part can be trivially automated and the second is just stupid. Truckers get paid per hour of work, less work == less money. AI-self-driving has arrived but to make the transition look "humane" as in the AD is crazy. Almost insults the intelligence of the…

Truckers generally get paid per mile, not per hour. They are also heavily regulated as to the number of hours they can drive (why you see so many husband/wife driving teams). One can easily foresee a future where a self-driving truck has a driver in it who is only driving 'regulated' hours for a small portion of a trip (say during high traffic, highway entry/exit, etc). The driver could spend the rest of his time sle…

Coding is a very HN comment :)

More realistically, he can do the trucking office work from the truck.

Re: Uber self-driving trucks are now moving cargo for Uber Freight customers

#72

Post by hfdgiutdryg »

lambda_lover wrote: post #43
mtgx wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will Uber pay a bigger portion of the road repair taxes? Especially considering truckers already pay a disproportionately lower tax compared to the impact they have on the roads.

Do they? I mean, trucks are hardly gas efficient, and aren't most roads maintained (supposedly) via gas taxes? The question, I suppose, is how much harder they are on the roads relative to their fuel efficiency.

aren't most roads maintained (supposedly) via gas taxes?

The last time I looked into this, studies put it at something like 50% - 80% of costs paid for by fuel taxes. It's hard to come up with a straight figure because of so many levels of intermingled tax funds.

Re: Uber self-driving trucks are now moving cargo for Uber Freight customers

#73

Post by nickpeterson »

nixgeek wrote: post #11
nickpeterson wrote: post #5

I think these companies (autonomous car/truck) understand that they need to transition these processes slowly over time. I feel like it's better to start with something only moderately different and iterate than try to completely reinvent the entire structure of such a large industry. First they do this, then they automate more and more portions, at each step reducing the amount of manual, human supervision. It also…

This is a woefully optimistic viewpoint: when the technology is ready there will be layoffs. IMO. These companies aren’t slow-playing their hand to avoid layoffs, and it’s a race to see who can perfect the technology first.

No doubt, but I think it's just the nature of complex systems. You could invent a drug that cures all diseases and maladies, and there would still be practicing doctors for 5-10 years while the cost/distribution/red-tape was worked out.

Re: Uber self-driving trucks are now moving cargo for Uber Freight customers

#74

Post by mmazing »

Should be a fun day when people realize they can pretty easily hijack automated trucks.

I assume you could either get in the back of the thing while it's moving, or simply slow down in front of it and cause it to stop. Unload your newly acquired goods and be on your way!

Re: Uber self-driving trucks are now moving cargo for Uber Freight customers

#75

Post by TheCoelacanth »

emodendroket wrote: post #57
nopinsight wrote: post #8

For those concerned with jobs to be eliminated, it might not be as big a problem as we think for the trucking industry. "Over the next 10 years, he said, we need to attract almost 900,000 new people to the industry. Demographics is a big part of the problem. ATA’s research arm, the American Transportation Research Institute, recently updated its demographic data on drivers and found some 57% of drivers are 45 or olde…

I rarely see justification for the idea that lump of labor is actually fallacious. Historically big die-offs have led to higher wages for survivors.

The counter-example would be the Industrial Revolution. Compared to 150 years ago, nearly every job has had the amount of work necessary to do it dramatically decreased, yet wages increased dramatically.

Re: Uber self-driving trucks are now moving cargo for Uber Freight customers

#76

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

bluetwo wrote: post #20

I feel like they re-invented the train. :-)

When trains become competitive with road transport, maybe we should move more to using trains. Until then, we won't, and we shouldn't. (If it's a matter of externalities/hidden subsidies, then the costs of these externalities must be brought to the entity causing them, e.g. via taxes.)

I don't know why (in Germany) a long-distance bus is much cheaper than a train (from/to the same city), but it is. We shouldn't be trying to shift traffic to rail unless there's a good reason beyond "it feels good" for it. If it is better for the environment, I'd like to see a "citation" (not in the form of research, but in the form of well-justified taxes/tolls/... that transform this into a matter of cost).

Re: Uber self-driving trucks are now moving cargo for Uber Freight customers

#77

Post by gaius »

djrogers wrote: post #49
lonelyw0lf wrote: post #42

The video ad is so crazy -- we still need a human to lock/unlock the cargo?? and its good for the truckers because they can go home early to their family?? The first part can be trivially automated and the second is just stupid. Truckers get paid per hour of work, less work == less money. AI-self-driving has arrived but to make the transition look "humane" as in the AD is crazy. Almost insults the intelligence of the…

Truckers generally get paid per mile, not per hour. They are also heavily regulated as to the number of hours they can drive (why you see so many husband/wife driving teams). One can easily foresee a future where a self-driving truck has a driver in it who is only driving 'regulated' hours for a small portion of a trip (say during high traffic, highway entry/exit, etc). The driver could spend the rest of his time sle…

rest of his time sleeping, reading, or coding

Problematic in at least two ways, probably three.

Re: Uber self-driving trucks are now moving cargo for Uber Freight customers

#78

Post by hobofan »

temporalparts wrote: post #68
nopinsight wrote: post #8

For those concerned with jobs to be eliminated, it might not be as big a problem as we think for the trucking industry. "Over the next 10 years, he said, we need to attract almost 900,000 new people to the industry. Demographics is a big part of the problem. ATA’s research arm, the American Transportation Research Institute, recently updated its demographic data on drivers and found some 57% of drivers are 45 or olde…

Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) were set to put Bank Tellers out of a job, but since its introduction, the number of Bank Tellers increased [0]. While I can't guarantee that something similar will happen for truckers, automation does not guarantee that fewer humans will be employed doing that specific job. [0] http://www.aei.org/publication/what-atms-bank-tellers-rise-r...

I'd love to see that graph continued for the last few years.

With online banking becoming more mainstream and online-only banks picking up steam, I've personally seen many local bank branches close up, and have a hard time believing that.

> So the transition–what the ATM machine did was effectively change the job of the bank teller into one where they are more of a marketing person.

Not sure if such an alternative position can be found in a cutthroat B2B market.

Re: Uber self-driving trucks are now moving cargo for Uber Freight customers

#79

Post by joncrane »

mtgx wrote: post #30
julbaxter wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without the rails.

Will Uber pay a bigger portion of the road repair taxes? Especially considering truckers already pay a disproportionately lower tax compared to the impact they have on the roads.

Isn't HN particularly fond of mentioning that one of the pillars of Uber's business model is to externalize costs? So no...

Re: Uber self-driving trucks are now moving cargo for Uber Freight customers

#80

Post by masklinn »

djrogers wrote: post #49
lonelyw0lf wrote: post #42

The video ad is so crazy -- we still need a human to lock/unlock the cargo?? and its good for the truckers because they can go home early to their family?? The first part can be trivially automated and the second is just stupid. Truckers get paid per hour of work, less work == less money. AI-self-driving has arrived but to make the transition look "humane" as in the AD is crazy. Almost insults the intelligence of the…

Truckers generally get paid per mile, not per hour. They are also heavily regulated as to the number of hours they can drive (why you see so many husband/wife driving teams). One can easily foresee a future where a self-driving truck has a driver in it who is only driving 'regulated' hours for a small portion of a trip (say during high traffic, highway entry/exit, etc). The driver could spend the rest of his time sle…

> One can easily foresee a future where a self-driving truck has a driver in it who is only driving 'regulated' hours for a small portion of a trip (say during high traffic, highway entry/exit, etc). The driver could spend the rest of his time sleeping, reading, or coding - he'd basically be a passenger.

That kinda already exists though, with team driving. Two pilots relaying gives ~22h of driving per 24h plus 2x30mn slack (under US regs, though there's still a limit of 70h/8 days followed by 34h rest per driver).

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