60
Will self driving trucks hit the roads with nobody on board or will they keep a human supervisor? (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
42 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

According to the news self driving trucks are about to hit the road with no driver on board.

But according to this book that is not going to happen. The author says that the real purpose is to get rid of the skilled drivers and replace them with underpaid button pushers.

Will they really do that? What's going to be the situation few years from now?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [S] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

In that case, would they be paid as skilled drivers or button pushers?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    The tricky part is that a truck is an incredibly expensive piece of equipment, and it needs a lot of maintenance.

    Professional truckers drive, yes.

    But they also inspect the inside and outside of the truck before and after each trip. Many of them deter theft and vandalism by often sleeping in the truck. Many of them can fix blown tire or a failed spark plug it more without outside assistance.

    It'll be lovely not to have to do the actual driving, but owners who think that's the only skill that a professional trucker brings are in for a nasty shock if they immediately swap to untrained staff.

    Once the trucks can drive themselves, a lot of the rest of what a trucker does can probably be done by fewer people, with the right coordination, resources and planning. But that's going to take a lot of effort, and it's going to have to be effort from actual truckers who know that they're doing.

    Source: I automate other people's jobs, for a living. It's a long slow process, and there's invariably parts of their job that simply cannot be replaced by current technology.

    I've seen executives conclude "I don't need anyone with XYZ skill set anymore, because the computer is magic", and then get fired a year later. The ones who listen to me avoided this, but I'm just a nerd, not a savvy synergistic business man. So what do I know?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    inspect the inside and outside of the truck before and after each trip.

    This could easily be a full time job for a team of people who working an ordinary 9-5 job inspecting one truck after another all day, basically the way taxis and other car fleets are maintained.

    I'd argue that's an improvement over driving a truck. Truck mechanics are paid slightly better than truck drivers, and they work far better hours.

    Many of them can fix blown tire or a failed spark plug

    Trucks have 18 wheels. A tire doesn't have to be fixed immediately. And I can't remember the last time I encountered a failed spark plug... but even if it were to happen one cylinder being out of action will just reduce your horsepower by 12%. You'd fix it after delivering the cargo.

    But again, roadside mechanics are a thing. And they're paid even better than workshop mechanics.

    deter theft and vandalism by often sleeping in the truck

    Human truck drivers are only allowed to drive 60 hours a week. Which means for at least 108 hours a week, the truck is parked somewhere. A self driving truck would have no such limit, and would almost always park at a safe location.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Yeah. All true. Lots of what truckers do today can be done by rapid response teams, and enhanced truck stops.

    That said, folks imagining that they will get to wave the AI magic wand and have safe reliable driverless trucks are in for a rude and expensive surprise.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent