(Washington Times) Self-driving trucks start making the rounds in Texas (1 Viewer)

[Taylor]

Modern right wing ideology is basically to directly screw over the majority of people that vote for them at almost every opportunity.

Of course, if we had it your way, everyone would still be riding in horse-drawn carriages.

 

[ataraxia]

Of course, if we had it your way, everyone would still be riding in horse-drawn carriages.

And if you had it your way, only a handful of people would have all the money in the economy and they would still be able to exploit child labor at 80 hrs/wk while paying them only bare subsistence level paychecks.

Are you still waiting for the trickle down to happen by itself naturally? Because that would be LOL.

 

[vesper]

Things are sure changing.
Whether it is self-driving vehicles to a paperless society, I am not fond of any of it.
But then again, I am old and at times antiquated. But I don't think that is a bad thing.

 

[aociswundumho]

Yet you claim we won't reach a point where nobody has a job?

That's correct. There aren't a limited number of jobs, and human wants are infinite.

Also I take it you lead by example by demanding to not be paid where you work?
If not, why do you hate the company you work for so much?

 

[Peter]

That's correct. There aren't a limited number of jobs, and human wants are infinite.

So, again why will companies hire anyone when robots can do every job?

Robots are free labour so how can people compete?

Lastly human wants are not infinite.
Even if I have $1T there's only so much stuff I'm going to buy or services I need.
I'm not going to buy 400 supercars as I don't need them.

 

[ataraxia]

That's correct. There aren't a limited number of jobs, and human wants are infinite.

Here's to hoping you're right. I'll drink to that!

 

[redbeer]

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in opposition to the concept.

What I don’t like is how truck drivers have been systematically exploited and that the nonsensical economic warfare Trump is waging against the entire rest of the world is causing irreversible damage to our economy.

John Oliver did a segment on truck drivers. It’s hard to watch without feeling infuriated.

That video tells it like it is over the road. I never did the lease/purchase program....it's a scam. Best to work for a small company after you've gained 8 to 10 years experience with a clean driving record, who pay percentage of the freight bill and let you drive how you want, iow turn the other way when it comes to logging. Yet, understand if you are not willing to run, you will not last long.

Oftentimes, the day begins waiting to get offloaded for several hours, then on to get reloaded, only to wait there for several hours. Now, if you're forced to drive legal at all times, might as well stay home and work for McDonald's. I'd run how I wanted, made good time and decent money, but it took long hours, was home each weekend, but it would be 90 to 100 hours per week.

Retired now, don't miss it for all the frustrations. Took a lot of years to understand "this is how it is" and just huncker down and get it done. With the onset of cellphones and the addiction to them for most nowadays, believe me it's very dangerous on the road today......be careful. Even pass many truck drivers on their damn cellphone.....cars it amounts to well over 90% using their phone while driving....it's nuts.

 

[Chomsky]

Meh…This is going to happen…barring a serious Luddite revolution. I don’t have a fear of the automation that others seem to have.

Having a “kill” switch is as about as bad of an idea as there is. A “kill” switch could be more dangerous than a malfunctioning vehicle. Unless by “kill” switch you mean slow down and pull of the road…which maybe impossible in of itself and if the programming is malfunctioning couldn’t be done anyway. Imagine driving down the highway at 75MPG and truck in front of you suddenly stops. If you’re in traffic it will be a pile-up.

What I am not in favor of is allowing billionaires who own the self driving companies to suddenly fire everyone that is investigating the lack of safety of your sw that does the self-driving.

Along with A.I., it's things like this that bring the reality that we are ineed moving to a labourless society.

I'm beginning to have doubts on just how much human labour will be needed for any new manufacturing facilities that may get built Stateside?

It might be less than we think.

 

[Phys251]

Self-driving trucks start making the rounds in Texas

Self-driving trucking company Aurora started its commercial service in Texas this week, marking the beginning of what could be a revolution in cargo transportation.

www.washingtontimes.com

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The next time you're driving down a Texas highway, don't be surprised if the 18 wheeler tooling-along beside you has no driver at the wheel!

'Yes' - the image above depicts an actual self-driving 18 Wheeler Semi merging onto a Texas public highway. Apparently, the day has come.

What I'd like to know is how does law enforcement initiate & perform a traffic stop?

This seems like a bad idea.

 

[Chomsky]

The operator in that situation would just be another redundant AI dedicated to that task.

I expect that you'd need such a system because of how janky/buggy computers are when compared with human brains in terms how often they systematically fail to operate properly.

When an 18 wheeler gets a blue screen of death I expect it to do better than either A: Continue to drive in a straight line, or B: Stop immediately,.

Ain't the bolded the truth!

 

[Chomsky]

Question is what trucks are they using. If its standard gasoline/diesel trucks then its fine and could be viable economically. As much as I understand, they provide just a package for vehicles basically which is good. If its electric then this is bullshit because eletric trucks have problems with range/weight/price because batteries need to be big increasing weight, increasing price, reducing range and are nowhere close to being viable.

From scanning articles for my OP, the gist I got is the manufacturer basically provides an electronics package for the freight org to use on their vehicles. I don't know who actually does the install.

 

[Chomsky]

Plus, they can speak English and Spanish.

But do they have work Visas? That's what we want to know!

 

[Chomsky]

And, as a former trucker, Real.

It's my fortune to have been around before Carter signed the Deregulation Act. Before that, trucking wasn't just a job, it was considered a well-paying profession.

It was a fast & relatively easy way for a blue-collar neighborhood high-school grad to earn a solid working-man's salary, and embark on the American dream of buying a house and raising a family.

In my blue-collar neighborhood, when you knew a guy with a Teamsters' Card, or better yet - if he was an Owner-Operator, you knew he was making a good buck.

In fact, more than a few of my friends went that route. I even knew a guy that dropped out of high school at 16, when his father got him a Teamsters' Card. His father didn't just give him his blessing, his father was the proponent of it as the old man was a Teamster and got the kid a job at his place!

But now? It looks like an Uber scam.

 

[Chomsky]

Yay!!!!

Multi-tone trucks going down the motorway with nobody at the controls, what could possibly go wrong?

Somehow sarcasm comes across so much more refined, when done in a UK dialect!

 

[Chomsky]

It'll be fine. Self driving trucks don't fall asleep, speed, or drive while impaired.

They have continuous 360 degree awareness and much faster reaction time than humans.

It's their self-awareness when they malfunction, or possible lack of it, that has some of us concerned.

 

[Chomsky]

Things are sure changing.
Whether it is self-driving vehicles to a paperless society, I am not fond of any of it.
But then again, I am old and at times antiquated. But I don't think that is a bad thing.

I suspect like all technology, it will be something we eventually become accustomed to.

But I must admit now upon it's introduction, it is a bit unnerving.

 

[Chomsky]

That video tells it like it is over the road. I never did the lease/purchase program....it's a scam. Best to work for a small company after you've gained 8 to 10 years experience with a clean driving record, who pay percentage of the freight bill and let you drive how you want, iow turn the other way when it comes to logging. Yet, understand if you are not willing to run, you will not last long.

Oftentimes, the day begins waiting to get offloaded for several hours, then on to get reloaded, only to wait there for several hours. Now, if you're forced to drive legal at all times, might as well stay home and work for McDonald's. I'd run how I wanted, made good time and decent money, but it took long hours, was home each weekend, but it would be 90 to 100 hours per week.

Retired now, don't miss it for all the frustrations.

Took a lot of years to understand "this is how it is" and just huncker down and get it done. With the onset of cellphones and the addiction to them for most nowadays, believe me it's very dangerous on the road today......be careful. Even pass many truck drivers on their damn cellphone.....cars it amounts to well over 90% using their phone while driving....it's nuts.

I wouldn't doubt the bolded, at all. Everything about looks like one big frustration. No disrespect intended.

 

[Chomsky]

This seems like a bad idea.

I could literally feel the unhappy resignation in your words!

 

[craig]

Ultimately automated vehicles on the highway will only be safe when all the vehicles are automated.

 

[gdgyva]

Self-driving trucks start making the rounds in Texas

Self-driving trucking company Aurora started its commercial service in Texas this week, marking the beginning of what could be a revolution in cargo transportation.

www.washingtontimes.com

--


--

--
The next time you're driving down a Texas highway, don't be surprised if the 18 wheeler tooling-along beside you has no driver at the wheel!

'Yes' - the image above depicts an actual self-driving 18 Wheeler Semi merging onto a Texas public highway. Apparently, the day has come.

What I'd like to know is how does law enforcement initiate & perform a traffic stop?

traffic stop for what?
programmed to obey ALL laws, signals, and speed limits
Only stops i could forsee would be equipment violations, and these types of vehicles are going to be heavily inspected for that type of issue

 

[Peter]

traffic stop for what?
programmed to obey ALL laws, signals, and speed limits
Only stops i could forsee would be equipment violations, and these types of vehicles are going to be heavily inspected for that type of issue

I think driverless vehicles are the future but starting with massive trucks is pure stupidity.
If they go wrong they go very very wrong.

 

[Allan]

traffic stop for what?
programmed to obey ALL laws, signals, and speed limits
Only stops i could forsee would be equipment violations, and these types of vehicles are going to be heavily inspected for that type of issue

The Waymo I saw pulled over by the cops in a video got confused by construction barriers and went the wrong way down a one way street.

So glitches can happen.

 

[dseag2]

We visited Austin recently and the number of Waymo self-driving cars was unbelievable, along with regretful Tesla owners.

 

[coyote505]

That video tells it like it is over the road. I never did the lease/purchase program....it's a scam. Best to work for a small company after you've gained 8 to 10 years experience with a clean driving record, who pay percentage of the freight bill and let you drive how you want, iow turn the other way when it comes to logging. Yet, understand if you are not willing to run, you will not last long.

Oftentimes, the day begins waiting to get offloaded for several hours, then on to get reloaded, only to wait there for several hours. Now, if you're forced to drive legal at all times, might as well stay home and work for McDonald's. I'd run how I wanted, made good time and decent money, but it took long hours, was home each weekend, but it would be 90 to 100 hours per week.

Retired now, don't miss it for all the frustrations. Took a lot of years to understand "this is how it is" and just huncker down and get it done. With the onset of cellphones and the addiction to them for most nowadays, believe me it's very dangerous on the road today......be careful. Even pass many truck drivers on their damn cellphone.....cars it amounts to well over 90% using their phone while driving....it's nuts.

Having talked quite a bit with an owner/operator: It is still possible for an o/o to make a good living, But you have to marry your truck. The only good loads are dedicated loads, (drop and hook on both ends) and the shippers want them to move 1,000 miles per day. No way to do that without running team and keeping the rig rolling 24/7.

Flatbed is usually better than van. You only get treated like shit by the Shipper. The receiving yards are usually pretty nice. With vans, you get shit on on both ends.

Automated logging screws you, because it counts you driving for the slightest movement of the rig. Many times, you will be in a line at the shipper, moving the rig forward 100 feet every ten minutes of so, and eating a sandwich or playing with your phone the rest of the time, often for several hours. The automated system will count all of this as driving hours and have you close to houred out by the time you leave the yard.

Yeah, union outfit is the only way for an employee to make decent money, but competition is driving these outfits out of business. Name brand national lines are going extinct.

 

[JohnRawls]

From scanning articles for my OP, the gist I got is the manufacturer basically provides an electronics package for the freight org to use on their vehicles. I don't know who actually does the install.

Then it might be economically viable if its standard trucks. Now then the final question is who is liable if something goes wrong? Plus diesel/gasoline trucks can go boom, boom if something goes really wrong. That is the final hurdle at implementing "AI" in anywhere. Since now there is no human to blame then who gets the bill when the damages happen? The "AI" company? The "trucking" company? You know your system is not 100% accurate so what is the acceptable level of not being accurate? If another driver makes a mistake but the car can't properly react to it and turns a minor accident in to something massive who is liable then?