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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

#191

Post by conanbatt »

marcosdumay wrote: post #187
conanbatt wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you advocate to destroy all the machinery those people clamored against today?

Of course not. But some welfare would have saved a few million lives, greatly enriched any country (although people didn't know that by the time), and removed one or two world wars from our history.

You got some leaps of faith there.

Capitalism was basically born by the application of technology disruptively like it did. Saddling the creative forces with the consequences can easily prevent the change from happening at all, and in the end, it is better for the whole.

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

#192

Post by jcranmer »

lawguy wrote: post #138
masklinn wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's misplaced, freight is the one area where NA in general and US in particular absolutely blows every other region out the water. Circa 2010 Rail was ~40% of US freight by ton-mile, whereas for the EU it was ~17%, and the US had 10x more tonne-kilometer freight rail than the EU (beyond China and Russia, with India a very distant third) (nb: China carried more tonnes total but shorter distances) Of course…

> Hell one of the reasons passenger trains is shit in the US is that passenger rail does not get priority over freight They do have priority: > (c) Preference over freight transportation. -- Except in an emergency, intercity and commuter rail passenger transportation provided by or for Amtrak has preference over freight transportation in using a rail line, junction, or crossing... http://codes.findlaw.com/us/title-49…

What happens is that the freight trains gives Amtrak a window for its timetable. In that window, Amtrak gets priority. Miss the window, and Amtrak has to wait for freight trains. There's a separate issue that some freight operators will decide to screw Amtrak over (even within their nominal window) and just eat the fines instead.

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

#193

Post by notatoad »

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #163
notatoad wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>trucks could drive themselves with a passenger trucker to intervene in tricky situations this scenario has been mentioned a couple times in this thread, but if the automation isn't good enough to handle 100% of the journey 100% of the time, then it's really not good enough to allow the trucker to simply be a passenger. If the operator might have to take control in tricky situations, they can't be sleeping the rest o…

> If the operator might have to take control in tricky situations, they can't be sleeping the rest of the time. A tricky situation for a computer is often not a tricky situation for a human. 99% of it will be the AI getting confused by things that are simple for humans (e.g interpreting detour signs).

that doesn't change my point though: regardless of how easy it is for a human to respond to, they can't respond if they're sleeping.

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

#194

Post by ambicapter »

bobthepanda wrote: post #129
ktpsns wrote: post #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.

The main issue has actually been prioritization. In Europe the rails are fast and well-maintained, which is great for passenger operation but expensive for very heavy freight operations. Passenger operations are also prioritized very heavily at the expense of freight operations on the rail network. In comparison, the US rail network is slow and low quality, which makes freight operations extremely attractive but is a…

Why is slow and low quality rail great for freight?

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

#195

Post by stefan_ »

stcredzero wrote: post #166
ktpsns wrote: post #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.

It is a pity, because from the raw numbers trains are much less expensive then tracks. Often, the flexibility and reduced latency of freight by truck is worth the increased per-mile cost.

Freight by truck is worth it because of flexibility and reduced latency, flexibility and reduced latency are worth it because of just-in-time production, just-in-time production is worth it because of less inventory, less inventory is worth it because of less money locked up in inventory, less money locked up in inventory is worth it because of better cash flow on the quarterly reports, better cash flow on the quarterly reports is worth it because it makes the stock market like your company more, the stock market liking your company more is worth it because ???

We might just find out the things we thought are worth it, are not really. It works the other way around, too, of course, which is that the increased per-mile cost is still way below what it would have to be with the externalities accounted for.

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

#196

Post by Avshalom »

dizzystar wrote: post #185
nvahalik wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the main problem with the personal care assistant isn’t so much the pay is so low but rather it’s hard for people to actually pay someone full time (or even part time) to care for someone.

A full-time care taker is also often living in the house. So, even if they are are only getting paid $22k, that money isn't really going to any expenses. They are likely getting paid more than that anyways.

if 22000 is the mean they are equally like to be getting paid less.

(well actually if it's the median it's equally likely but for practical purposes...)

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

#197

Post by gthtjtkt »

PantaloonFlames wrote: post #160
gthtjtkt wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> However, the economic pie will be enlarged and there will be more to share. How the fruits of technology will be distributed will depend to a large extent on negotiations and politics. If recent history is any indication of how this will turn out, it's not going to be pretty. The rich get richer and everyone else gets screwed.

> The rich get richer and everyone else gets screwed. Not actually true. a more accurate telling is: the rich get richer and the poor get richer too. You may commenting on the fact that the rich are getting richer FASTER than the poor are getting richer, and that's an interesting phenomenon to comment on, but it is undeniable that everyone is getting richer, almost regardless how you slice the data. Worldwide, extrem…

> Why are we are inundated with the false idea that "things are so bad" by mainstream media?

Maybe because it's not false and it's actually happening to an alarming degree in the U.S.?

https://hbr.org/2017/10/why-wages-arent-growing-in-america

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/09/for-most-wor...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-01/america-s...

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

#198

Post by MBCook »

jstarfish wrote: post #118
rconti wrote: post #97

Can't we get this technology nailed so well that hopping in a self-driving car for your day-to-day errands is something you do without a second thought, BEFORE we start sending out 30 ton missiles as beta tests?

I agree with the sentiment, but guiding a large missile down a straight highway with human oversight has many fewer variables than navigating smaller missiles through crowded urban areas.

Plus given the amount of trucking on certain corridors it might be possible to get some lanes ‘roped off’ for automated trucking only, further reducing the risk.

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

#199

Post by Kalium »

ryanwaggoner wrote: post #93
JackFr wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

In general, the real bottleneck with theft at scale isn't the actual theft. It's turning the stolen goods into money afterwards and disposing of the evidence. Items being slightly easier to steal doesn't do much to make them easier to fence.

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

#200

Post by Avshalom »

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...

Bank Tellers have however as a result turned into entry-level-retail with often impossible quotas for sales.
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