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Self-driving trucks begin mail delivery test for U.S. Postal Service

reuters.com

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Re: Self-driving trucks begin mail delivery test for U.S. Postal Service

#51

Post by esilver »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #40

>> A safety driver will sit behind the wheel to intervene if necessary and an engineer will ride in the passenger seat. This is how you know a vehicle is self-driving: there are two people sat in the front.

The in-vehicle monitor will likely be a standard part of autonomous and semi-autonomous trucking for the foreseeable future.

A monitor can be paid less than a driver, as they’re doing less work, and can respond to onsite issues more promptly and accurately than could a remote one.

Re: Self-driving trucks begin mail delivery test for U.S. Postal Service

#52

Post by 0xffff2 »

linuxftw wrote: post #41
oldgradstudent wrote: post #20

Totally self driving. Well, except for the driver. And also the engineer sitting next to the driver. But otherwise, self driving.

I agree. This is a big nothing-burger. I can create a self-driving car as long as there's a real driver behind the wheel when needed. It doesn't say anything about how much autonomy is actually expected. Semi's can't react as quickly to changing conditions as a Tesla. Rolling carnage. This will never work.

>Semi's can't react as quickly to changing conditions as a Tesla.

That's true whether there's a human driving or a computer. The only relevant distinction for a semi or a Tesla is whether the computer can react faster and make better decisions than a human driver would.

Re: Self-driving trucks begin mail delivery test for U.S. Postal Service

#53

Post by inglondon »

YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #40

>> A safety driver will sit behind the wheel to intervene if necessary and an engineer will ride in the passenger seat. This is how you know a vehicle is self-driving: there are two people sat in the front.

Reminds me of when I attended an event in Paris, France and they had a robot bartender. I was there during the day when they were setting up and it took a team of 3 engineers ~8 hours to set up vs just paying a bartender for the 3 hours + an hour's setup time that the evening cocktail reception lasted.

I understand they organisers wanted something cool, but it was comical to observe nonetheless.

[Edit: punctuation]

Re: Self-driving trucks begin mail delivery test for U.S. Postal Service

#54

Post by esilver »

strikelaserclaw wrote: post #42

"possible solution to the driver shortage and regulatory constraints faced by freight haulers across the country" - mmm, every industry is facing worker shortage huh -.-

The driver shortage is a legitimate crisis and was the cause of huge rate increases last year. Driving a truck is a difficult job and fewer people are choosing it as a career path. [0]

“Regulatory constraints” refers to FMCSA’s hours-of-service rules, the legal limit to how many hours a driver may operate a truck in a given day. [1]

[0] https://www.npr.org/2018/01/09/576752327/trucking-industry-s...

[1] https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/hours-service/summary-...

Re: Self-driving trucks begin mail delivery test for U.S. Postal Service

#55

Post by mijamo »

esilver wrote: post #51
YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #40

>> A safety driver will sit behind the wheel to intervene if necessary and an engineer will ride in the passenger seat. This is how you know a vehicle is self-driving: there are two people sat in the front.

The in-vehicle monitor will likely be a standard part of autonomous and semi-autonomous trucking for the foreseeable future. A monitor can be paid less than a driver, as they’re doing less work, and can respond to onsite issues more promptly and accurately than could a remote one.

I don't think the quantity of work matters at all for salary.

A monitor probably needs more knowledge than a driver (need to know the specifics of the product, how to fix problems etc.), and has the same downsides (long hours, not especially exciting job, bad work hours, sitting all the time etc.). If anything I would think they would be paid more.

Re: Self-driving trucks begin mail delivery test for U.S. Postal Service

#56

Post by ghaff »

inglondon wrote: post #53
YeGoblynQueenne wrote: post #40

>> A safety driver will sit behind the wheel to intervene if necessary and an engineer will ride in the passenger seat. This is how you know a vehicle is self-driving: there are two people sat in the front.

Reminds me of when I attended an event in Paris, France and they had a robot bartender. I was there during the day when they were setting up and it took a team of 3 engineers ~8 hours to set up vs just paying a bartender for the 3 hours + an hour's setup time that the evening cocktail reception lasted. I understand they organisers wanted something cool, but it was comical to observe nonetheless. [Edit: punctuation]

There's a chain of hotels (Yotel) that is known in part for its robot that will stow luggage the hotel is holding for you. In practice, the staff mostly stows your luggage like every place else because the robot doesn't have anything like the throughput you need at busy times.

Re: Self-driving trucks begin mail delivery test for U.S. Postal Service

#58

Post by bluedino »

strikelaserclaw wrote: post #42

"possible solution to the driver shortage and regulatory constraints faced by freight haulers across the country" - mmm, every industry is facing worker shortage huh -.-

A friend of mine has a son (22 years old) who just started driving a semi truck for one of the big 'Dollar' store chains.

Pays $680 a week, he's home every 2 weeks, and as a bonus he gets to unload the truck.

Not a terrible job, but not many people want to work that schedule, and a life on the road isn't probably ideal.

Re: Self-driving trucks begin mail delivery test for U.S. Postal Service

#60

Post by kingnothing »

joshgachnang wrote: post #17
zaroth wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A valuable service which they charge money for, and should generate revenue to cover their costs. Pension funding politics aside, I want to pay USPS postage fees which cover the cost of the service they provide. There’s no reason to be paying below cost postage to USPS. I find that their rates are extremely competitive, particularly priority mail flat rate compared to UPS or FedEx. I think the post office could be do…

But isn't the junk mail where they make a ton of their money?

I'd be willing to pay to not receive it.
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