Live data from Hacker News

This Year, Autonomous Trucks Will Take to the Road with No One on Board

spectrum.ieee.org

61–70 of 106 posts

Re: This Year, Autonomous Trucks Will Take to the Road with No One on Board

#61
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They'll just insure it and be done with, like they currently do with regular trucks (which BTW have to stop every 9 hours and let the driver sleep, thus creating a very vulnerable situation wherre the truck is parked and driver is helpless). Truck robberies are just not a big problem already.

I think truck stops and middle of nowhere are different though. Truck stops have other truckers. Some have facilities and cameras. But yeah, I think most truck jackings are targeted and often involve insiders, or occasionally a driver leaves the truck unsecured and someone drives off but that’s rare.

Granted, I am no truck driver myself, but from my vast experience hitchhiking in the EU and former USSR and hearing stories from drivers, robberies or theft of cargo happen quite often at truck stops along the roads, most of which lack cameras or even much lighting. Other trucks may be present, but their drivers are usually sleeping and wouldn't intervene anyway, because who wants to risk their life for a stranger when all cargo is insured anyway?

Re: This Year, Autonomous Trucks Will Take to the Road with No One on Board

#62

There are 3.5 million truck drivers in the US. What are 3.5 million people going to do if they're suddenly out of a job and have to change career completely? I am far from being a Trump supporter, but it would be easy for authoritarian politicians to ride to the White House on the grievances of millions of voters who had their livelihoods taken away from them by automation. Trump's promises to bring back manufacturin…

Let's just hope autonomous trucks displace the dangerous "king of the road" drivers with little regard to safety of those around them out of jobs first. Getting that type of trucker off the road can't come fast enough.

Re: This Year, Autonomous Trucks Will Take to the Road with No One on Board

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One with a large array of cameras. So the dumbest possible target. But people rob banks, where they're also 100% guaranteed to be on camera and automatically involves an FBI investigation. As well as having a surprisingly low average haul (a few thousand dollars).

We've also normalized hiding our faces behind medical masks.

But not our eyes so you are still tracable.

Re: This Year, Autonomous Trucks Will Take to the Road with No One on Board

#64

There are 3.5 million truck drivers in the US. What are 3.5 million people going to do if they're suddenly out of a job and have to change career completely? I am far from being a Trump supporter, but it would be easy for authoritarian politicians to ride to the White House on the grievances of millions of voters who had their livelihoods taken away from them by automation. Trump's promises to bring back manufacturin…

If we allow cars, all the jobs breeding and caring for the horses will disappear.

Re: This Year, Autonomous Trucks Will Take to the Road with No One on Board

#65
post #55

Over the last five years prominent self-driving companies have consistently over promised and under-delivered. I was quite optimistic for the approach that Starsky chose (but unfortunately couldn't bring to market [1]) with autonomous segments combined with occasional remote assistance. It might not be as sexy as FSD but that's tech we can use now. That said, if this team can make it work, power to them! Edit: I real…

if any of them actually get on the road, then they would be endangering lives https://jperla.medium.com/tesla-saves-lives-waymo-gambles-pa...

Re: This Year, Autonomous Trucks Will Take to the Road with No One on Board

#66
post #22

Seems like yet another press release from an autonomous driving company that promises to test without humans soon and has vague ambitions of level 4 autonomy in the 3-5 year horizon. Add it to the pile! http://rodneybrooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/SelfDrivi... (from recent HN post https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25706436 )

if any of them actually get on the road, then they would be endangering lives https://jperla.medium.com/tesla-saves-lives-waymo-gambles-pa...

Re: This Year, Autonomous Trucks Will Take to the Road with No One on Board

#67

"This year"... kinda... This year there will be the first real tests run with no one in the cab. "By 2024,TuSimple plans to achieve Level 4 autonomy, meaning that its trucks will be able to operate without a human driver under limited conditions that may include time of day, weather, or premapped routes." Somehow I've managed to miss that trucks are better for this stuff not just because of the type of driving they d…

>"Trucks are also a better platform for autonomy, with their large size providing more power for computers" I'm no expert but "power for computers" doesnt strike me as a bottleneck, Geohot/Comma seem to be doing fine, this just sounds like marketing bs

That's right the limitation is Data. You can't effectively use the extra compute if you don't have enough data to train a bigger neural network. https://jperla.medium.com/why-tesla-autopilot-ought-to-be-aw...

Re: This Year, Autonomous Trucks Will Take to the Road with No One on Board

#68
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We've also normalized hiding our faces behind medical masks.

But not our eyes so you are still tracable.

If I'm actively robbing a truck, I will put on sun glasses. What I'm saying is that it's harder to know a masked man is robbing or just inspecting a truck.

Re: This Year, Autonomous Trucks Will Take to the Road with No One on Board

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One with a large array of cameras. So the dumbest possible target. But people rob banks, where they're also 100% guaranteed to be on camera and automatically involves an FBI investigation. As well as having a surprisingly low average haul (a few thousand dollars).

We've also normalized hiding our faces behind medical masks.

Ask Eric Munchel how much a mask ended up helping...

Re: This Year, Autonomous Trucks Will Take to the Road with No One on Board

#70

"This year"... kinda... This year there will be the first real tests run with no one in the cab. "By 2024,TuSimple plans to achieve Level 4 autonomy, meaning that its trucks will be able to operate without a human driver under limited conditions that may include time of day, weather, or premapped routes." Somehow I've managed to miss that trucks are better for this stuff not just because of the type of driving they d…

I'm the author of this. It was certainly surprising to learn that a lot of what AVs are doing right now is limited by the amount of power available to the computers. It didn't make it into the article in full, but we were told that in general more computing power means detecting and classifying more object types, tracking those objects over longer periods of time, and doing more detailed motion prediction and plannin…

If so, why not use cars without alternators? 48V mild-hybrids have much higher capacity starter-generators instead of alternators, and electric cars can generally pull power from their batteries at the same rate they can charge it. For example, for a Tesla Model 3 that's 250 kW.
Post reply on HN