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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

#91
post #74

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!

Can't you use the same strategy for human driven trucks? Except that the human driver is a lot less likely to be uploading a live video stream back to the corporate office.

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

#92
The funny thing in this US-centric view is that we have such a cargo since a century where trains play the role of "self-driving cargo".

In europe, the decline of cargo on tracks (trains) is also partially owed to subsidiation of automobile traffic and highway expansions. It is a pity, because from the raw numbers trains are much less expensive then tracks.

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

#93
post #84
post #74

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!

What makes you think they would be easier to hijack? Part of the ease of hijacking truck is that you can drive off with it. What if the trailer locks its wheels and bricks itself, if it determines it's being hijacked, all while recording 360 video and sending immediate alerts to management and law enforcement? Certainly better than a driver afraid for his life.

Think burglary vs home invasion. It's not just about easier, it's about it being a different threshold for whether it's worth it. The presence of other people drastically complicates crimes, and makes it much more likely that you'll end up dead or in prison for decades.

Also, all the countermeasures you mention aren't free or without issues, and could be in place now, but aren't. Why not?

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

#94

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…

Having grown up in an area where becoming a trucker is a common enough career path, I can tell you that the hours of work thing (which is really miles per work, but they correlate) lands some truckers in some sketchy situations

Many of my friends have told me they take those gas station "energy supplements" so they can stay up for 2-3 straight days to log more hours and make the trip.

Thats probably not healthy for their bodies, and certainly not safe for other people on the road, but if miles = money then its whats incentivized

If trucks could drive themselves with a passenger trucker to intervene in tricky situations, the passenger could have a much more healthy intake and sleep schedule

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

#95
Does the self driving truck have any kind of security? Given that there is a "do no harm" program embedded into the driving "subroutines", is there anything that prevents thieves from essentially surrounding the truck and robbing it in the middle of nowhere?

Edit: To clarify I mean - in a hypothetical situation where it is ever driverless, couldnt 10 of us surround it, while I walk in and commandeer it, disable GPS and drive off ?

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

#96
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

rest of his time sleeping, reading, or coding Problematic in at least two ways, probably three.

Even if (and that's a very big if) we get to a point where we decide we need someone behind the wheel of these truck, but it's okay for them to be staring at a laptop the entire time, I can't see a whole lot of quality code coming from someone who is sitting in the cabin of a truck with one eye constantly on the road.

Just when I thought there wasn’t anything worse than the open office plan.

It brings a whole new meaning to the word “shipping”.

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

#98
post #74

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!

Assuming the truck driver isn't heavily armed or willing to endanger themselves by wrecking an 18 wheeler, there's nothing really stopping anyone from doing that today.

You seem to be working under the assumption the nobody has ever hijacked truck up to this point, and that for whatever reason self driving trucks would be left unlocked with no security mechanisms in place whatsoever.

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

#99
post #95

Does the self driving truck have any kind of security? Given that there is a "do no harm" program embedded into the driving "subroutines", is there anything that prevents thieves from essentially surrounding the truck and robbing it in the middle of nowhere? Edit: To clarify I mean - in a hypothetical situation where it is ever driverless, couldnt 10 of us surround it, while I walk in and commandeer it, disable GPS a…

I mean, if 10 people surrounded a truck with a single human driver, they'd probably be able to drive off with it too.

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

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 .

Truck drivers don't do office work, really. All of the documents like bill of lading, etc are taken care of by the office workers of the company the driver works with.

They have to do paperwork like logging hours, doing a pre-trip inspection, etc. This is done during off-time while the driver isn't driving (for obvious reasons). Usually on the driver's seat with a clipboard on the steering wheel :D

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