While You Were Watching Afghanistan, This Aired on 60 Minutes

 

Amazon testing a driverless truck.

In case you missed the “60 Minutes” segment on driverless trucks, you need to catch up. Just last weekend, a very interesting segment dated August 15 caught my eye. A story emerged about driverless trucks, semis, that transport all our goods and services, and employ millions of truckers in our country. What was so bizarre about the story was the lack of awareness by the truckers themselves, their unions, their industry, about this so-called “quiet” testing of driverless big rigs on the road.

We all see the big transporters on the highways delivering the very lifeblood of our nation’s products — food, building supplies, car parts — everything that we use to function as a nation. Unbeknownst to the truckers, driverless trucks, guided by AI — sophisticated computer systems that include WI-FI and GPS — are guiding these big rigs down American highways at high rates of speed (of course, observing the speed limit), while also recording the license plates around them, and everything else.

When asked by the interviewer, where does this information go, they evaded answering the question and other serious questions. In addition, the truckers don’t understand why they have not been made aware of this new technology, which could possibly eliminate at least 2 million jobs. Why do I sense China is in this new industry? Because I watched a documentary where driverless cars, and elimination of jobs was on the horizon as a consequence, and the Chinese presenter laughed and said, “Driverless vehicles coming soon – within the next ten years.” Why? Because they are very involved in this “green new deal” that we are being sold as a method to “save the planet.” Many jobs, not just truckers, will be erased thanks to robotics and AI, of which they are at the forefront. Do you think they have an interest in Afghanistan and its resources? Keep that thought.

Someone recently posted a video of Elon Musk saying AI is more of a threat than nuclear weapons. Why did he say that?

I think this is hook, line, and sinker part of the Great Reset.

These are unelected people who are transforming our world under our noses while we are being distracted. There are many names that you would be familiar with on these boards. Corporations and individuals, and countries who do not necessarily endorse the work ethic, family values, or the engines that have driven the West, America, and freedom to accomplish all that it has. See what you think – I am interested in your thoughts. I feel this will continue unless we grasp the scope of the global New World Order and its intended agenda.

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  1. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):
    Here’s hoping they do something about it. Maybe even before it actually happens.

    Automation and cheap globalized labor wipes out jobs and businesses. This is better living through purchasing power. This is deflation. Every central bank on the planet is forcing inflation. Right now it’s mostly going into asset markets and not the CPI.

    There is going to be a human cost among other things.

     

    I think we’ve been over this before. Even in deflation, people need to earn money SOMEHOW just to support themselves. Falling prices doesn’t help someone who has NO MONEY. And if there are no jobs for them simply because workers aren’t needed due to automation, or because the available jobs are more complex than some proportion of people are capable of, then they either get left behind, or they have to be provided with subsistence another way.

    When they force inflation they are speeding up the bad dynamics. This would all take care of itself humanely if they were just bomb the Eccles building.

    I have some news for you. The GOP is going to force inflation so the whole system doesn’t fall apart. They are also going to re-distribute. You need to learn the term “Nominal GDP”.

    Mises.org is right about everything.

    I don’t doubt that, but my point is that deflation doesn’t fix everything.  You still get automation, and increasingly complex jobs, but that doesn’t make people smarter.  You’re going to be left with increasing numbers of people without anything they are CAPABLE OF doing as a job, let alone anything they might be NEEDED FOR.  And deflation of NO INCOME doesn’t improve their situation.

    • #91
  2. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    RufusRJones (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):
    Here’s hoping they do something about it. Maybe even before it actually happens.

    Automation and cheap globalized labor wipes out jobs and businesses. This is better living through purchasing power. This is deflation. Every central bank on the planet is forcing inflation. Right now it’s mostly going into asset markets and not the CPI.

    There is going to be a human cost among other things.

     

    I think we’ve been over this before. Even in deflation, people need to earn money SOMEHOW just to support themselves. Falling prices doesn’t help someone who has NO MONEY. And if there are no jobs for them simply because workers aren’t needed due to automation, or because the available jobs are more complex than some proportion of people are capable of, then they either get left behind, or they have to be provided with subsistence another way.

    When they force inflation they are speeding up the bad dynamics. This would all take care of itself humanely if they were just bomb the Eccles building.

    I have some news for you. The GOP is going to force inflation so the whole system doesn’t fall apart. They are also going to re-distribute. You need to learn the term “Nominal GDP”.

    Mises.org is right about everything.

    I don’t doubt that, but my point is that deflation doesn’t fix everything. You still get automation, and increasingly complex jobs, but that doesn’t make people smarter. You’re going to be left with increasing numbers of people without anything they are CAPABLE OF doing as a job, let alone anything they might be NEEDED FOR. And deflation of NO INCOME doesn’t improve their situation.

    They can force all of this. I shell out for a guy that says that real interest rates are going to go -12%. People aren’t going to have a choice and they are going to take the check.

    • #92
  3. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    RufusRJones (View Comment):
    They can force all of this. I shell out for a guy that says that real interest rates are going to go -12%. People aren’t going to have a choice and they are going to take the check. 

    They can create NGDP so people have jobs as well. 4% inflation and 4% GDP will work just fine.

     

    • #93
  4. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    James Lileks (View Comment):

    What problem do AI trucks solve?

    Is that problem really a problem?

    Yes, say the automation advocates, imagining a world of autonomous vehicles zipping along in perfect harmony, everything up on the big board, all the data flowing in like tributaries of a great river.

    No, say the humans, who see the eradication of a job, a culture, a thousand oases where the drivers stop to gas up and eat.

    But who are these humans, really? Why do they have this archaic attachment to toil, when they could stay home and compose cowboy poetry?

    The same Chinese presenter that spoke at this symposium with the snicker said “you won’t have to worry about that smelly driver” (Uber & taxis), you just call up a driverless car to take you where you want. No one will own cars. Think about it. Something that sits in the driveway way more than it ever gets used” Cars will become a useless purchase”. This is playing into the fuel shut downs (pipelines – more job losses), saving on pollution (ok -I get that), but I see someone else controlling where I go and when. My info will all be on some database – my “profile” – am I vaccinated or not, is my social credit a C- because I donated to a conservative candidate? 

    • #94
  5. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Clifford A. Brown (View Comment):

    Tex929rr (View Comment):

    We’ve all been stuck behind two semis on the interstate, one trying to pass the other with about .25 mph speed difference. I’ve been behind them with lights and a siren trying to get them to pay attention long enough to move over so I can get to an emergency. I can’t wait to see how a driverless semi will react to that.

    Now imagine the big rigs are controlled by a hostile or criminal force.

    Or they control what the rigs carry – uh-oh – this cargo is full of meat  – bad. What about hazardous cargo? That requires a specialized driver.

    • #95
  6. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):

    HankRhody Freelance Philosopher (View Comment):
    When’s the last time you’ve passed a Semi on the road and it didn’t have a “Drivers wanted!” advertisement painted on the back door?

    Right, and the shortage of drivers seems to be way worse than it used to be. Not for me in my particular job, but at the company I work for it’s a regular source of stress trying to get timely deliveries due to a nationwide shortage of truck drivers, even though the rates being paid are higher than ever. Drivers have told me that if a driver is unhappy with the outfit he is working for, he can find a new job in no time flat because everyone is so understaffed.

    Front Seat Cat: In case you missed the “60 Minutes” segment on driverless trucks, you need to catch up. Just last weekend, a very interesting segment dated August 15 caught my eye.

    I haven’t watched it, but I learned a very long time ago that 60 Minutes is not a good source for unbiased journalism.

    Agree – but they also seem to be airing certain content that is like a conditioning of what is on the horizon.  I like the fact that the interviewer was questioning those in charge where all the data was going that the cameras on the front of the truck was recording. He said he was ‘not at liberty to say’.  What a weird answer.

    • #96
  7. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    Kevin Schulte (View Comment):

    Stad (View Comment):

    Driverless trucks . . . a terrorist’s dream!

    Truck jackers too. Oh, unless Robocop’s are in the trailer.

    That’s an interesting picture.  I think about all those sci-fi movies – the humans are always the sub-species………..

    • #97
  8. Front Seat Cat Member
    Front Seat Cat
    @FrontSeatCat

    This is the documentary that I watched where the Chinese guy talks about driverless cars – and the useless class etc:

    https://muse.ai/v/CRFPmJ1-The-New-Normal-Documentary-by-happennetwork

    They go into AI and the elimination of the workforce – it’s very interesting.

    • #98
  9. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    kedavis (View Comment):
    For a scythe-wielder to find a job one step up from scythe-wielding is a lot easier than, say, a truck driver finding a job in programming the automated trucks.

    But not riding along with them (to supervise), or maintaining them.

    • #99
  10. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):
    Something that sits in the driveway way more than it ever gets used

    This ignores how people actually use their cars. For example – infants and car seats – we leave these in our car while it sits in the driveway to have the use of it when when we need to take our kid somewhere. Doesn’t happen if you don’t own cars.

    • #100
  11. Flicker Coolidge
    Flicker
    @Flicker

    Instugator (View Comment):

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):
    Something that sits in the driveway way more than it ever gets used

    This ignores how people actually use their cars. For example – infants and car seats – we leave these in our car while it sits in the driveway to have the use of it when when we need to take our kid somewhere. Doesn’t happen if you don’t own cars.

    Car seats would be a simple design modification.  I suppose, every seat in a digital car could transform into a car seat, or a booster seat.

    • #101
  12. Paul Stinchfield Member
    Paul Stinchfield
    @PaulStinchfield

    kedavis (View Comment):
    For a scythe-wielder to find a job one step up from scythe-wielding is a lot easier than, say, a truck driver finding a job in programming the automated trucks.

    Who was the pundit who infamously told unemployed factory workers to “learn to code”?

    • #102
  13. Paul Stinchfield Member
    Paul Stinchfield
    @PaulStinchfield

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    Paul Stinchfield (View Comment):

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    EDISONPARKS (View Comment):

    . . .

    How many field hands have been put out of work by tractors? A whole lot, and yet it didn’t all happen overnight and we are not a nation of unemployed field hands. They presumably got jobs that were better than swinging a scythe from sun-up until sun-down.

    Yes, but these changes tend to happen a lot faster now, which adversely affects the ability of people and populations to adjust.

    I’ve seen no evidence for that one way or the other. But I think the fear is overblown. The adjustment will be several orders of magnitude smaller and an order of magnitude slower than recurring dislocations caused by government, like all large-scale wars, the mass confinement orders that were supposed to eliminate covid, or the Great Recession, all of which (not counting the mass detentions) society adjusted to within a few years or less.

    But sure, the faster the change happens, the sharper and painful are the temporary dislocations (and the faster the benefits accrue to the people as a whole). That fact doesn’t make moving society farther from universal freedom and closer to universal slavery a good idea, to my way of thinking. The claimed benefits of reduced freedom and responsibility are in the long run illusory, and the costs are enormous.

    The changes do seem to be coming faster in recent years, and the faster they happen and the more people they affect the harder it is to adjust.

    • #103
  14. Paul Stinchfield Member
    Paul Stinchfield
    @PaulStinchfield

    HankRhody Freelance Philosopher (View Comment):

    There is a larger scale societal problem where you can’t even employ the bottom end of the bell curve anymore. Frankly, I’ve got no idea how that will play out (I suspect that we’ll have to wait on that answer as more immediate problems, ah, divert our attention.) It may be that there comes a time where we ought to stand athwart history and hold up the stop sign, but I don’t think this is it.

    Indeed. And what happens to those people? Without useful work to do they will become, well, we already have slums in England and America telling us what happens to people who somehow become surplus to requirements.

    But in fact it’s not just the bottom end of the bell curve that is threatened–more like the entire bottom half.

    • #104
  15. Paul Stinchfield Member
    Paul Stinchfield
    @PaulStinchfield

    Instugator (View Comment):

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):
    Something that sits in the driveway way more than it ever gets used

    This ignores how people actually use their cars. For example – infants and car seats – we leave these in our car while it sits in the driveway to have the use of it when when we need to take our kid somewhere. Doesn’t happen if you don’t own cars.

    Don’t forget emergencies. If everyone suddenly needs a car (hurricane or other disaster?) then the fleet of shared driverless cars will be vastly insufficient for the sudden demand.

    • #105
  16. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Instugator (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):
    For a scythe-wielder to find a job one step up from scythe-wielding is a lot easier than, say, a truck driver finding a job in programming the automated trucks.

    But not riding along with them (to supervise), or maintaining them.

    Wouldn’t such a person need to be a qualified driver themself?  In that case, where do the great savings come from?

    • #106
  17. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Paul Stinchfield (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):
    For a scythe-wielder to find a job one step up from scythe-wielding is a lot easier than, say, a truck driver finding a job in programming the automated trucks.

    Who was the pundit who infamously told unemployed factory workers to “learn to code”?

    For sure, it was someone who doesn’t understand/appreciate what coding means – at least GOOD coding – and very likely couldn’t do it themselves.

    • #107
  18. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Paul Stinchfield (View Comment):

    Instugator (View Comment):

    Front Seat Cat (View Comment):
    Something that sits in the driveway way more than it ever gets used

    This ignores how people actually use their cars. For example – infants and car seats – we leave these in our car while it sits in the driveway to have the use of it when when we need to take our kid somewhere. Doesn’t happen if you don’t own cars.

    Don’t forget emergencies. If everyone suddenly needs a car (hurricane or other disaster?) then the fleet of shared driverless cars will be vastly insufficient for the sudden demand.

    And they likely would be unable to function in emergency situations, too.

    • #108
  19. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Instugator (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):
    For a scythe-wielder to find a job one step up from scythe-wielding is a lot easier than, say, a truck driver finding a job in programming the automated trucks.

    But not riding along with them (to supervise), or maintaining them.

    Wouldn’t such a person need to be a qualified driver themself? In that case, where do the great savings come from?

    The great savings come from a couple of sources – the amount of time a driver is allowed to be on the road could increase – the reduction in crashes. 

    Remember, drivers do more than drive. They log their deliveries, drop the cargo (or pump the cargo out), notify dispatch of problems with the rig. Heck any number of drivers I have talked to speak very poorly of the drop off instructions they receive, so the self driving truck gets you within a mile or two, but you still have the last mile problem.

    • #109
  20. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Instugator (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Instugator (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):
    For a scythe-wielder to find a job one step up from scythe-wielding is a lot easier than, say, a truck driver finding a job in programming the automated trucks.

    But not riding along with them (to supervise), or maintaining them.

    Wouldn’t such a person need to be a qualified driver themself? In that case, where do the great savings come from?

    The great savings come from a couple of sources – the amount of time a driver is allowed to be on the road could increase – the reduction in crashes.

    Remember, drivers do more than drive. They log their deliveries, drop the cargo (or pump the cargo out), notify dispatch of problems with the rig. Heck any number of drivers I have talked to speak very poorly of the drop off instructions they receive, so the self driving truck gets you within a mile or two, but you still have the last mile problem.

    Unless you’re saying the driver can be sacked out in back until the “last mile” they would still have to be at the wheel and alert for things that might happen.  I don’t think you could add much to current hour limits in that situation, and indeed with less to do requiring constant attention, they’re more likely to watch movies or read or text or something.

    • #110
  21. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    kedavis (View Comment):
      I don’t think you could add much to current hour limits in that situation, and indeed with less to do requiring constant attention, they’re more likely to watch movies or read or text or something.

    Depends – the rules for team drivers are more lax and a self driving truck could be treated as team.

    Each driver has a 14-hour on-duty clock and an 11-hour driving clock, and each driver is required to take a 30-minute break during their shift. Each driver also is limited to 60 hours in seven days or 70 hours in eight days, just like solo drivers. Most teams run set shifts that vary.

    I have a high school friend who drives and his number one complaint is with the scheduling shop and the fact that they send him on runs where he times out 15 minutes from home. So he parks the truck, sleeps in the cab his required 6 hours then heads to the yard.

    • #111
  22. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    EDISONPARKS (View Comment):
    [What] are we going to do with countless millions of newly unemployable unemployed truckers

    Depends on how much I want to think about it.

    If I think only about “That Which is Seen”, then my answer is this. We should give our Washington politicians, bureaucrats, and lobbyists permission to either “create a job” for each newly unemployed trucker, or provide a similar standard of living via handouts. (This includes subsidized variations like offering job training. These historically almost always fail in the end, but fortunately that is not part of “That Which is Seen”.)

    If I think about both “That Which is Seen” and “That Which is Unseen”, my answer is this. We should demand that the political class do nothing except remove anti-market obstacles that are hurting the affected drivers. And each of us should tell a newly-unemployed trucker who asks, “What should I do?” this: “Well, you were looking for a job when you found this one…” unless we have some way to help that particular individual.

    How many field hands have been put out of work by tractors? A whole lot, and yet it didn’t all happen overnight and we are not a nation of unemployed field hands. They presumably got jobs that were better than swinging a scythe from sun-up until sun-down.

    I wish I’d said it that way.

    For a scythe-wielder to find a job one step up from scythe-wielding is a lot easier than, say, a truck driver finding a job in programming the automated trucks.

    Imagine if you had a time machine and could talk to a field hand in 1840.  What would he think if you told him that tractors would one day make his job obsolete?  But don’t worry, you say, because there will be other jobs for simpletons like you.  Like driving trucks!  And you show him a model year 2000 or new semi truck and trailer.  The guy would think you must be an escapee from a sanitarium.  Surely this must be the most complicated machine ever invented!  How could a common lummox ever learn how to operate something that complex?  And yet, it seems that the common man with a high school education can operate these machines and smart phones and all kinds of devices that would have blown Thomas Edison’s mind.

    I’m sure people have been having these conversations since the wheel was invented and will still be having them three hundred years from now.

    • #112
  23. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Instugator (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):
    I don’t think you could add much to current hour limits in that situation, and indeed with less to do requiring constant attention, they’re more likely to watch movies or read or text or something.

    Depends – the rules for team drivers are more lax and a self driving truck could be treated as team.

    Each driver has a 14-hour on-duty clock and an 11-hour driving clock, and each driver is required to take a 30-minute break during their shift. Each driver also is limited to 60 hours in seven days or 70 hours in eight days, just like solo drivers. Most teams run set shifts that vary.

    I have a high school friend who drives and his number one complaint is with the scheduling shop and the fact that they send him on runs where he times out 15 minutes from home. So he parks the truck, sleeps in the cab his required 6 hours then heads to the yard.

    Yes, but with a TEAM there is always one human DRIVER at the wheel.  Treating a single driver and a self-driving truck as a “team” would mean the one human DRIVER would/could be asleep much of the time, as with a two-human team where one of the humans can be sleeping or otherwise occupied while the other HUMAN is at the wheel.  But when a single HUMAN driver is sleeping, only the truck is “at the wheel” and that’s the situation that needs to be avoided for the reasons listed previously.

    • #113
  24. kedavis Coolidge
    kedavis
    @kedavis

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):

    Mark Camp (View Comment):

    EDISONPARKS (View Comment):
    [What] are we going to do with countless millions of newly unemployable unemployed truckers

    Depends on how much I want to think about it.

    If I think only about “That Which is Seen”, then my answer is this. We should give our Washington politicians, bureaucrats, and lobbyists permission to either “create a job” for each newly unemployed trucker, or provide a similar standard of living via handouts. (This includes subsidized variations like offering job training. These historically almost always fail in the end, but fortunately that is not part of “That Which is Seen”.)

    If I think about both “That Which is Seen” and “That Which is Unseen”, my answer is this. We should demand that the political class do nothing except remove anti-market obstacles that are hurting the affected drivers. And each of us should tell a newly-unemployed trucker who asks, “What should I do?” this: “Well, you were looking for a job when you found this one…” unless we have some way to help that particular individual.

    How many field hands have been put out of work by tractors? A whole lot, and yet it didn’t all happen overnight and we are not a nation of unemployed field hands. They presumably got jobs that were better than swinging a scythe from sun-up until sun-down.

    I wish I’d said it that way.

    For a scythe-wielder to find a job one step up from scythe-wielding is a lot easier than, say, a truck driver finding a job in programming the automated trucks.

    Imagine if you had a time machine and could talk to a field hand in 1840. What would he think if you told him that tractors would one day make his job obsolete? But don’t worry, you say, because there will be other jobs for simpletons like you. Like driving trucks! And you show him a model year 2000 or new semi truck and trailer. The guy would think you must be an escapee from a sanitarium. Surely this must be the most complicated machine ever invented! How could a common lummox ever learn how to operate something that complex? And yet, it seems that the common man with a high school education can operate these machines and smart phones and all kinds of devices that would have blown Thomas Edison’s mind.

    I’m sure people have been having these conversations since the wheel was invented and will still be having them three hundred years from now.

    There’s a lot more to operating a freight truck than driving a car – which is why you need a special license, for example – and many average people can use a smart phone for making calls etc while having no clue about and never using the myriad other features available.  Plus “Average” is not the low end of the curve.

    • #114
  25. Randy Weivoda Moderator
    Randy Weivoda
    @RandyWeivoda

    Instugator (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):

    Instugator (View Comment):

    kedavis (View Comment):
    For a scythe-wielder to find a job one step up from scythe-wielding is a lot easier than, say, a truck driver finding a job in programming the automated trucks.

    But not riding along with them (to supervise), or maintaining them.

    Wouldn’t such a person need to be a qualified driver themself? In that case, where do the great savings come from?

    The great savings come from a couple of sources – the amount of time a driver is allowed to be on the road could increase – the reduction in crashes.

    Remember, drivers do more than drive. They log their deliveries, drop the cargo (or pump the cargo out), notify dispatch of problems with the rig. Heck any number of drivers I have talked to speak very poorly of the drop off instructions they receive, so the self driving truck gets you within a mile or two, but you still have the last mile problem.

    Yeah, it would seem to be most practical to have self-driving trucks just running back and forth between the same few distribution points, where they just switch trailers then go back again.  Just like trains haul cargo long distances, but then a truck driver takes it to the actual final destination.

    • #115
  26. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):
    Yeah, it would seem to be most practical to have self-driving trucks just running back and forth between the same few distribution points, where they just switch trailers then go back again.

    Who does the trailer switching? I would argue a human. 

    • #116
  27. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    kedavis (View Comment):
    But when a single HUMAN driver is sleeping, only the truck is “at the wheel” and that’s the situation that needs to be avoided for the reasons listed previously.

    Disagree – provided those other problem are worked out. AND to get to the horrifying humanless future people seem to be worried about they would have to be.

    Autopilots did not eliminate Pilot jobs – they did make aviation safer. Self-driving trucks – same thing.

    • #117
  28. HankRhody Freelance Philosopher Contributor
    HankRhody Freelance Philosopher
    @HankRhody

    Instugator (View Comment):

    Randy Weivoda (View Comment):
    Yeah, it would seem to be most practical to have self-driving trucks just running back and forth between the same few distribution points, where they just switch trailers then go back again.

    Who does the trailer switching? I would argue a human.

    Sure. Truck comes in, idles in a parking spot for a human to get there and make decisions. The human unhitches that load, hitches up another long haul load and sends the automated truck back to Tampa, or wherever. Then the human can get in a standard rig and haul the load from the distribution center to whatever local destination it has. It’s not a completely automated system but it employs a fifth of the drivers than it would if it needed bodies for the long hauls. 

    That’s another point missing from the discussion. When you do automate a system it isn’t all at once, sign on the dotted line and a million truckers get fired. It takes time to ramp up new systems, and skilled labor to complete the rest of the job.

    • #118
  29. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    HankRhody Freelance Philosopher (View Comment):
    That’s another point missing from the discussion. When you do automate a system it isn’t all at once, sign on the dotted line and a million truckers get fired. It takes time to ramp up new systems, and skilled labor to complete the rest of the job.

    To be fair, folks are taking 60 minutes at their word that 1M truck drivers are going to lose their jobs. 60 Minutes.

    Believing 60 minutes on nearly anything is succumbing to Gell-Mann Amnesia. Don’t be a Gell-Mann amnesiac.

    • #119
  30. Instugator Thatcher
    Instugator
    @Instugator

    HankRhody Freelance Philosopher (View Comment):
    Sure. Truck comes in, idles in a parking spot for a human to get there and make decisions. The human unhitches that load, hitches up another long haul load and sends the automated truck back to Tampa, or wherever.

    A number of companies only have their single hub. So there isn’t a drop off place that they own to make the switch. Since they get paid when their driver delivers the load and the receiver accepts the load, there is still human interaction going on. Maybe the billions of out of work “truck drivers” can get into the newly invented “truck agent” business, where they perform the human activity at the end of a run, representing either the shipper or receiver.

    • #120
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