Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Self-Driving Trucks Are Going to Hit Us Like a Human-Driven Truck

Via Skynet


Late last year, I took a road trip with my partner from our home in New Orleans, Louisiana to Orlando, Florida and as we drove by town after town, we got to talking about the potential effects self-driving vehicle technology would have not only on truckers themselves, but on all the local economies dependent on trucker salaries. Once one starts wondering about this kind of one-two punch to America’s gut, one sees the prospects aren’t pretty.

We are facing the decimation of entire small town economies, a disruption the likes of which we haven’t seen since the construction of the interstate highway system itself bypassed entire towns. If you think this may be a bit of hyperbole… let me back up a bit and start with this:

Source: NPR
 

This is a map of the most common job in each US state in 2014.

It should be clear at a glance just how dependent the American economy is on truck drivers. 

According to the American Trucker Association, there are 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the US, and an additional 5.2 million people employed within the truck-driving industry who don’t drive the trucks. That’s 8.7 million trucking-related jobs.

More @ Medium

14 comments:

  1. First, I doubt you'll have to worry about losing a lot of drivers jobs because that technology has to be expensive.
    And just because it can haul a load down an interstate doesn't mean that it can back up to a dock.

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    Replies
    1. Don't think there will be much of a change in my life time.

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  2. My farm tractors auto steer. Believe me, there is a near infinite level of variables going from field to road. I predict total global economic meltdown, world war 12 and the rapture will occur long before we see driverless semis.
    Of course, I am wrong a lot.

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  3. First time one of these things plows into a school bus or a church van the company that made it will be bankrupt. The technology is simply not up to the necessary
    capabilities for a truly driverless vehicle. And won't be for a long time.

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    Replies
    1. I believe 20 years was mentioned.

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    2. To be truly 'self driving' will require artificial intelligence. It would be virtually impossible to write a program and create algorithms that can be programmed into a system, no matter how complex the system, that could anticipate all possible problems and contingencies and react properly. It will require a truly thinking machine to enable such vehicles to actually perform safely.

      Once we have that level of technology we may not be worrying about the safety of self driving vehicles.....we may be too busy fighting SkyNet.

      Delete
  4. Between 2000 - 2010, these US lost 55,000 factories and 5-6 million manf. jobs.
    In twenty yrs what will the population be and the number of truckers at that time
    who will lose out. The jobs the average Joe can do are being eliminated.
    The loss of the manf. jobs hurt the people and still does. Based on their soulless
    reptilian natures, our demise is eminent. Soylent Green lines.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Back to the farm and we should be preparing for such. Some farmers who lived off the land in the 30's were little impacted by the Great Depression.

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    2. That's what my mother said. 98 yrs. old. Said they were just poor, but they ate good, living on a farm.

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    3. I hope you're writing everything down that she knows. Invaluable. Thanks.

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  5. There probably won't even be any open land by this time. They'll do like they do to
    the bears here in NC when the population expands d/t the bear's land being developed.
    Open season. Probably a false flag for us though I won't be around. I would love
    to see the day when they get attacked while hiding in their protected mansions.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. All we wish is to be left alone as we did in '61, but commies can't stand not controlling the people.

      Delete