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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

#41

Post by jelliclesfarm »

fiblye wrote: post #16
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.

It’s a refrigerated good. No human is safely driving from California to Pennsylvania in 3 days. If you need something fresh, this is basically telling supermarkets and distributors that robots can get it to you faster.

Refrigerated cargo has a not insignificant carbon foot print. If self driving trucks can deliver it sooner/faster, then it’s a good thing.

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

#42

Post by sdan »

Interesting thing is that their Silicon Valley office is next to a strip mall and is more of an office space than an industrial one. I live near there and so far haven't seen any of their branded trucks or anything of their brand really relative to other self driving startups like Apple roaming around with their mattress-like hardware system.

So I'm guessing most development work is happening in China, just like several other Chinese based self-driving companies.

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

#43

Post by ianai »

hprotagonist wrote: post #27
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.

That’s still a hell of a savings.

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

#44

Post by nwallin »

joe_the_user wrote: post #36
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'll take a 90% efficiency gain any day. If you need a safety driver 100% of the time, the net gain in efficiency is 0%. Edit: There's no comment in the article about there being period with no safety driver.

If it's one safety driver monitoring 4 vehicles it's still a win.

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

#45

Post by tshadley »

onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #28
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.

Handling that 10% is going to be tricky, though. Can an unpiloted truck be trusted to know its limitations perfectly, shutdown and park when it hits borderline road conditions?

Edit: Okay, remote driver access might solve this.

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

#46

Post by jelliclesfarm »

deeblering4 wrote: post #37
jelliclesfarm wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 expl…

I take it you are not a trucker who is providing for a family. Think about not only losing your job but losing your entire industry.

Are you a trucker?

Once upon a time, horse drawn carriages transported people and there were stables and groomsmen and carriage drivers and those who provided food and board for the horses. That entire industry and those jobs disappeared when the motor cars came along. They found other jobs. We moved on.

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

#48

Post by nwsm »

joe_the_user wrote: post #36
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'll take a 90% efficiency gain any day. If you need a safety driver 100% of the time, the net gain in efficiency is 0%. Edit: There's no comment in the article about there being period with no safety driver.

90% less human mistakes.

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

#49

Post by acollins1331 »

nwallin wrote: post #44
joe_the_user wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll take a 90% efficiency gain any day. If you need a safety driver 100% of the time, the net gain in efficiency is 0%. Edit: There's no comment in the article about there being period with no safety driver.

If it's one safety driver monitoring 4 vehicles it's still a win.

Only if your win is continuing devolution of the middle class.

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

#50

Post by AlexCoventry »

joe_the_user wrote: post #36
onlyrealcuzzo wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'll take a 90% efficiency gain any day. If you need a safety driver 100% of the time, the net gain in efficiency is 0%. Edit: There's no comment in the article about there being period with no safety driver.

I'm sure someone's working on telepresence which kicks in when the AI's getting confused.
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