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Self-driving truck delivers butter from California to Pennsylvania in three days

santacruzsentinel.com

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Re: Self-driving truck delivers butter from California to Pennsylvania in three days

#21

Post by asdfasgasdgasdg »

seriesf wrote: post #12
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment and the parent's are snarky and ungenerous. The accomplishment is the self-driving truck crossing 3k miles, not the butter contained within.

Actually the butter is the important thing in this article. The self-driving revolution isn't going to enable beautiful and wondrous accomplishments. Instead, it's going to enable international megaconglomerates to more cheaply exploit the desperately poor migrant workforces of far-away places. That's all you're going to get out if it: butter at the same price, but from Tulare County and the butter company saves ten…

I have trouble believing you actually think that. I suspect you are just trying to defend a comment that's indefensibly vapid. But, if you genuinely believe there's no positive value in freight and that making it more efficient is an unworthy goal, then I don't think we'll come eye to eye on anything tonight.

Re: Self-driving truck delivers butter from California to Pennsylvania in three days

#23

Post by rgacote »

tyingq wrote: post #13
mehrdadn wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be honest that's not entirely obvious from the title. I was left wondering why butter was worth mentioning if the point was self-driving.

They mention it because there's a longer distance self driving semi-truck record, but it wasn't hauling anything. I imagine the point is that it hauled a refrigerated fragile load, and it arrived unscathed.

No single driver can make that time, but a two person team can make coast to coast in 3days in decent weather. The issue with all these autonomous vehicles is that this country regularly has some nasty weather.

Re: Self-driving truck delivers butter from California to Pennsylvania in three days

#24

Post by jelliclesfarm »

seriesf wrote: post #12
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment and the parent's are snarky and ungenerous. The accomplishment is the self-driving truck crossing 3k miles, not the butter contained within.

Actually the butter is the important thing in this article. The self-driving revolution isn't going to enable beautiful and wondrous accomplishments. Instead, it's going to enable international megaconglomerates to more cheaply exploit the desperately poor migrant workforces of far-away places. That's all you're going to get out if it: butter at the same price, but from Tulare County and the butter company saves ten…

Why isn’t this a great accomplishment? People don’t have to be long haul truck drivers or be alert the whole time..

Even if it entirely eliminates human beings, it means the person who’d be driving the truck will be able to do better paying or other fulfilling tasks. Who knows...study or become an artist or spend more time with children etc.

I also don’t see how migrant workers are being exploited? How is anyone exploited if they are not driving long haul truck routes?

Re: Self-driving truck delivers butter from California to Pennsylvania in three days

#25

Post by sjg007 »

Spooky23 wrote: post #10
seriesf wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Imagine believing you have accomplished something by hauling butter 3000 miles to Pennsylvania.

That’s the reality of modern agriculture. All of this innovation and advanced tech just squeezing a few pennies out of butter. Check out this gentleman, a 4th generation onion farmer in upstate NY who cannot sell his onions at any price. Like many farmers in the northeast, he’ll be bankrupt in a few months. https://twitter.com/ChrisPawelski/status/1173339453332643840... Produce buyers use cartel tactics to suppress p…

There’s another story about a guy growing Vidalia inions and selling them online...

Re: Self-driving truck delivers butter from California to Pennsylvania in three days

#26

Post by bsder »

TAForObvReasons wrote: post #17

This is an impressive feat but something is confusing. Picture caption: > A safety driver was behind the wheel, but the truck drove _mostly_ autonomously. Body text: > A Silicon Valley startup has completed what appears to be the first commercial freight cross-country trip by an autonomous truck > There were zero “disengagements,” or times the self-driving system had to be suspended because of a problem, Kerrigan sai…

Probably refueling. I can't imagine the truck drives into a truck stop autonomously.

Re: Self-driving truck delivers butter from California to Pennsylvania in three days

#27

Post by hprotagonist »

melling wrote: post #19

“the truck drove mostly autonomously.” That last 10% is going to be a lot of work. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule

it's worse than that, of course. You'll find, like a certain Greek philosopher fond of asking annoying questions, that the first 90% of the last 10% will be OK, and that last 10% will be the other 90% of the ... etc. etc. etc.

Re: Self-driving truck delivers butter from California to Pennsylvania in three days

#28

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

melling wrote: post #19

“the truck drove mostly autonomously.” That last 10% is going to be a lot of work. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule

I'll take a 90% efficiency gain any day. If they can drive I-70 from SF to NYC with no human, or the 10 from Florida to California, that seems like a win, even if the person has to drive in the city. Warehousing will just get shifted around to work with where the trucks can safely drive.

Re: Self-driving truck delivers butter from California to Pennsylvania in three days

#29

Post by jelliclesfarm »

bsder wrote: post #26
TAForObvReasons wrote: post #17

This is an impressive feat but something is confusing. Picture caption: > A safety driver was behind the wheel, but the truck drove _mostly_ autonomously. Body text: > A Silicon Valley startup has completed what appears to be the first commercial freight cross-country trip by an autonomous truck > There were zero “disengagements,” or times the self-driving system had to be suspended because of a problem, Kerrigan sai…

Probably refueling. I can't imagine the truck drives into a truck stop autonomously.

I wish I had posted this link..it’s a much better one and gives more details https://www.supplychaindive.com/news/plusai-autonomous-truck... [..]To comply with hours of service (HOS) requirements, Shawn Kerrigan, COO and co-founder of Plus.ai, told Supply Chain Dive that the truck driver took over when getting off the highway for rest stops and breaks, otherwise, he said the journey was completed autonomously.[..]

Re: Self-driving truck delivers butter from California to Pennsylvania in three days

#30

Post by hirundo »

For the initial truly driverless test, mount a nice comfortable seat on the truck's front grill and ask the CEO to sit there for this same trip. If he's confident enough to be the crumple zone, that's something.

Maybe the same should go for the larger shareholders and the lead engineers. The rest of us will have skin in the game whether we want to or not. They should have more.

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