The Future (End) of Truck Driving is Closer Than You Think

[ATeam]

Traffic might be the perfect reason to use a robot truck. I'm pretty sure that, if they do decide to use robot trucks, they'll have some kind of traffic awareness system built in that can make reflex moves a million times quicker than you and I could.

Traffic could go either way when robots are widespread on the road. Some say as you say; that the robot cars and trucks will take in all available information and optimize their moves and routes relative to traffic. The available information will include the robots talking to each other about their trip plans and cooperating to optimize traffic flow.

Others say traffic will get worse because congestion will increase. When a human driver does not have to sit in traffic or go to the trouble of driving, it may be more likely that the number of trips will increase. Why drive on an errand to the store when you can simply send the robot to go get whatever it is what you want? Why worry about traffic and congestion when you can sit in your car and work on other stuff while the robot works its way through the congestion?

With vehicle interiors redesigned to serve as mini offices or entertainment centers, time in a car or truck during rush hour may come to be viewed as time well spent instead of time wasted. With people more willing to be on the road during rush hour, congestion may increase.

 

[davekc]

You are right. It was PJ I was thinking of. Had my names crossed.

 

[highway star]

"The walrus was Paul."

That says it all, we can now get back on topic.

 

[paullud]

Traffic might be the perfect reason to use a robot truck. I'm pretty sure that, if they do decide to use robot trucks, they'll have some kind of traffic awareness system built in that can make reflex moves a million times quicker than you and I could.

The issue is that the robots can only do as they are programmed, humans by nature are unpredictable which will cause many accidents.

Sent from my ADR6400L using EO Forums

 

[ATeam]

I wonder, could a robot win a NASCAR race when it is alone in a field of human drivers?

 

[Moot]

You are right. It was PJ I was thinking of. Had my names crossed.

Yeah, that will happen. All those Canadians look alike.

 

[Moot]

I wonder, could a robot win a Nascar race when it is alone in a field of human drivers?

Probably, although it would be the last race it would ever run in. I don't believe a robot would survive the victory celebration. Champagne, stale Budweiser or whatever it is they hose down the winning driver with would more than like short out the robot's electronics.

As for robots in the trucking industry, TL carriers would still need a "driver" in every truck. Somebody has to unload, sort and segregate the freight at the grocery warehouses. I don't think a robot is stupid enough to do it.

 

[hossman2011]

They will have to get ssssssooooooo much better with technology!!! my expensive GPS does not even know if a stop or truck stop is on the right or left???!!!! I guess it will be a boon for towing companies when trucks start pulling into ditches and fields across fro the driveway..... lol

 

[Moot]

Maybe your expensive GPS is just messing with you. I'm sure you leave it locked up in a hot truck without food or water for long periods of time. Maybe it's payback time!

 

[scottm4211]

Yeah, that will happen. All those Canadians look alike.

Knock it off.

 

[Ragman]

Knock it off.

................

 

[highway star]

stale Budweiser

Stale?!!? I take great umbridge to that characterzation of my brew of choice! It's the king of beers, the great American lager. A little respect please...

 

[Opel2010]

Wait, Paul McCartney is dead? Somebody needs to tell him.

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McCartney

 

[blizzard2014]

Yeah that, or put the 10 trailers on a choo-choo train and leave the trucks in New York.

They already do that Moot. There just isn't enough choo choo trains to support the amount of freight that needs to be shipped!

 

[ATeam]

Truckers often react to stories like this with comments like "Not in my lifetime" or "Robots cannot drive safer than a professional like me." But such denial does nothing to slow the rapid movement toward self-driving trucks. Some are in real-world use right now as explained and pictured in this thread.

Volvo has been promoting the concept of road trains -- convoys of trucks with the lead truck driven by a human and the trucks behind driving themselves, programmed to follow the lead truck. Volvo successfully ran such a convoy in Spain on May 22. Story here. Similar demonstrations in other countries and the U.S. are probably not far behind.

It takes very little imagination to picture a large truckload carrier putting a team in a lead truck to lead say 10 trucks from New York to Los Angeles where 9 local or regional drivers will meet them and drive the individual trucks to their final stop.

With self driving cars already legal in two states (CA and NV) for testing purposes, it is not hard to imagine at all that the trucks will eventually drive themselves to the final stops. I am skeptical of Volvo's concept and believe they are introducing the human-led convoy only to gain public acceptance of robot trucks. With the convoy trucks already able to drive themselves, I don't think Volvo and others will settle on the human-led convoy idea. They will take the concept of self-driving trucks to its logical conclusion and eliminate human drivers altogether.

With the cost savings of driverless trucks being huge and the technology finding acceptance among the general public, I am not in the "Not in my lifetime" camp. While it saddens me to accept the fact, I have come to believe we will live to see truck drivers follow into the sunset telephone operators, family farmers, freight train conductors, aircraft navigators and others whose work has been eliminated by technology.

Progress continues toward self-driving cars and trucks on the public roads. See this.

My first guess at an American application: self-driving taxis in New York and other large cities.

 

[redytrk]

I have a bad habit of asking a question which, to my knowledge, no one has adequately answered yet.

That question is this: After we have all been replaced on the job by robots, who is going to buy the products the robots make and deliver???

Not to worry... With the move to Gay/Lesbian life styles there will be no humans for the robots to sell to.

 

[layoutshooter]

Progress continues toward self-driving cars and trucks on the public roads. See this.

My first guess at an American application: self-driving taxis in New York and other large cities.

I believe that much of the push to self-driving cars is due to the Baby Boomers aging. There is not enough public transportation to handle that large a number of people that will soon be unable to drive. There will NEVER be enough in rural areas.

 

[mjmsprt40]

You do, of course, realize that expedited driving-- delivery driving in general, for that matter-- is a little bit more involved than just pointing a 40-ton rig in the general direction you want it to go on the freeways, right? I wonder how the wonderful computers handle all the rest of it. Backing up to the dock. Finding out that the freight won't get unloaded unless you unload it. Yeah, the computer-driver is going to finger-print fourteen boxes and manually get them off of a van like mine, eh? I imagine that getting proof-of-delivery won't be too hard, but who checked the condition of the freight as it was loaded onto the vehicle, and who checks the condition when it's unloaded? The computer? Who is responsible for damage either before "Iron Mike" accepts it onto the vehicle or if it's damaged in some way in transit? Hint-- I don't think "Iron Mike" is any too sharp at securing the load so it won't move-- it just drives the vehicle.

I think there's a bit more to consider than just driving the vehicle. That might-- just might-- be done by robot. Think of the rest of what goes into this job and I for one am a little less sure.

 

[CharlesD]

Even if you eliminate the need for a human driver, a box still has to have freight in it and it still has to deliver that freight to a destination within a given time window. Someone still has to coordinate the movement of that freight. I'm in the freight delivery business, not the truck driving business. It's like all those newspaper people who still think they're in the printing news on paper business instead of the information delivery business. The means may change, but the core function of the business doesn't.

 

[xiggi]

It's just a matter of time. Sure there will be jobs in the freight industry just less of them. People that want to believe otherwise are not paying attention to history.

Sent from my Fisher Price - ABC123