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

we still won't allow trains to operate without onboard supervision and they should much easier to automate

Everyone is crying doom and gloom but I see a mostly seamless transition.

The more cargo management responsibilities a driver has the later they will get automated. These are also the most senior and well paid drivers. Truck drivers who will be replaced first are going to be the steering wheel holders that drag a dry van from loading dock to loading dock. These are also the most junior and poorly paid drivers.

As automation takes over we'll have fewer people taking entry level trucking jobs (because the jobs won't exist or the pay will be too low) and the industry will automate the harder jobs as the supply of experienced enough drivers slowly drives up and pushed the cost of a driver for those jobs high enough to be worth automating.

I'm sure some people will lose their jobs but I doubt we'll see millions of unemployed truckers and the value of a CDL tank.

It will also have ripples. What about all the small truck stops and diners that will slowly have less and less customers. These long haul runs will be pretty easy to automate away with automated refueling stations. All metro or major warehouse areas will have depots where the automated trips start/end and people will handle the last 5% of more difficult local driving and delivery.

No. I was a truck driver for almost a year.

The job pays like shit. You have to pay $2-5k for classes to get a CDL or get locked in with a company that trains you and you pay back at their variable rates of interest... oh and they "lose payments" often along with charging you high late fees.

They take anyone with a heartbeat. It's the ultimate form of equality. If you're dumb enough or desperate enough, they'll take you no matter your gender, race or self identifying whatever.

The job pays like crap, you're treated like crap and your body goes to shit real fast.

There are regulations, and most of them are pro-trucker, aimed to protect them from abuse by the company. Problem is, a majority of voters have this weird and incredibly stupid fantasy that trucker life equals a cowboy life. Thus, company lobbyists are able to easily manipulate the narrative to the media, public and Congress. Making sure truckers don't get a voice or have a leg to stand on. Most truckers aren't the brightest bulbs in the shed. I had to do it out of desperation from a spat of unemployment. I had a plan and a way out, unlike most of them. What really sucks, most truckers are really good people. They do the job in hopes of putting their families in a better situation. But because the companies run them down and they only get 3-5 days a month of home time, nothing works out as expected. A lot get divorced in their first year or so. Argue? Oh, what's that, there's no loads coming out of butt fuck nowhere Wyoming. Looks like you're stuck there for the week. Btw, you are paid based on miles driven when you have a load. Thus, in that situation, I didn't get a paycheck for the week.

And it's one of those jobs that people need to stay in their lane about. If you were never one, you actually don't know the shit they go through.

So no, it needs more regulation. The kind of regulations that puts a noose around the company's necks.

The problem is that you can't plan the remaining 10%. Perhaps it's every 10 miles you have to have the safety driver take over. That makes it effectively useless.