self driving trucks

[Southern Fried]

Here's a little scenario I would like to see how they'd program to take care of:

Load of gyprock panels (wallboard they call it down here) on a 53 foot trailer. Delivery instructions say "Exit 53, turn left over highway and RR overpass. Customer is first on left." OK, one problem. Soon as you cross over interstate you see a big sign.... Road Closed!! All traffic use exit 52. Awright. Go to exit 52. As soon as you swing off onto the road (and you can see the customer's yard) you see another sign... NO 53ft TRAILERS ALLOWED. Glance in the mirror and there's a Smokey right behind you with his lights going. He stomps up and says "Can't you read??".

Now what does "driverless truck" do?

Yes, this actually happened to me.

 

[ironpony]

Here's a little scenario I would like to see how they'd program to take care of:

Load of gyprock panels (wallboard they call it down here) on a 53 foot trailer. Delivery instructions say "Exit 53, turn left over highway and RR overpass. Customer is first on left." OK, one problem. Soon as you cross over interstate you see a big sign.... Road Closed!! All traffic use exit 52. Awright. Go to exit 52. As soon as you swing off onto the road (and you can see the customer's yard) you see another sign... NO 53ft TRAILERS ALLOWED. Glance in the mirror and there's a Smokey right behind you with his lights going. He stomps up and says "Can't you read??".

Now what does "driverless truck" do?

Yes, this actually happened to me.

The only place an autonomous truck makes sense is on long-haul interstate routes. Its doubtful we'll ever see something like that in local or delivery/pick up operations. Too many uncontrollable variables.

 

[Duck]

As long as CRE, Werner, CRST, et al can find enough cheap seat meat to keep their trailers rolling it will take quite an economic jolt to convince the bottom feeders to invest in this technology. Fuel costs won't drive it at current prices, so what will?

They only need to invest in politicians. John Q Taxpayer will pay for it.

 

[Southern Fried]

The only place an autonomous truck makes sense is on long-haul interstate routes. Its doubtful we'll ever see something like that in local or delivery/pick up operations. Too many uncontrollable variables.

That was long haul interstate..... all those loads deliver somewhere.

Even cross-country rail makes stops along the way. Drop off RR cars here, pick up several there. Change entire crews every so often.

The cost of "autonomous" will be huge because it's not just the equipment but changing the infrastructure of the whole dang industry.

Think about why they dropped fuel celled, hydrogen powered cars and are dicking around with electrics and "natural gas". Infrastructure.

 

[ironpony]

They only need to invest in politicians. John Q Taxpayer will pay for it.

Uh huh... you ready ta pony up yer share John Q Duck?

 

[Duck]

Uh huh... you ready ta pony up yer share John Q Duck?

F*** no.

 

[ironpony]

F*** no.

See? Ain't gonna happen.

 

[Duck]

See? Ain't gonna happen.

So you suppose everyone in the entire country is going to up & refuse to pay taxes as soon as they start subsidizing drone trucks or pissing away billions of dollars implanting sensors in the highways?

 

[ironpony]

So you suppose everyone in the entire country is going to up & refuse to pay taxes as soon as they start subsidizing drone trucks or pissing away billions of dollars implanting sensors in the highways?

There's got to be a clear financial advantage achieved by adopting a new technology. I don't see where that is. Massive infrastructure costs, downtime due to manufacturers inability to keep the stuff running, increased maintenance costs... and I don't see it displacing enough workers to make it viable.

Cheer up... the sky ain't fallin'.

 

[Duck]

There's got to be a clear financial advantage achieved by adopting a new technology. I don't see where that is. Massive infrastructure costs, downtime due to manufacturers inability to keep the stuff running, increased maintenance costs...

Stop it! You're killing me!








You were saying?

 

[ironpony]

So the gubbermint is going to buy drone trucks for CRE so they can put hundreds of working taxpers on the dole...

Yeah.

You gotta start smokin' better dope.

 

[Duck]

So the gubbermint is going to buy drone trucks for CRE so they can put hundreds of working taxpers on the dole...

Yeah.

You gotta start smokin' better dope.

Innnfrrraaasssttrrruuccctttuuurrre

 

[ironpony]

Innnfrrraaasssttrrruuccctttuuurrre

So when didja become a Roosevelt Democrat?

 

[Duck]

So when didja become a Roosevelt Democrat socialist?

About the same time you threw fuel economy out the window & started running triple digits everywhere.

 

[ironpony]

About the same time you threw fuel economy out the window & started running triple digits everywhere.

Ah yeah... you just advocated putting the unemployed back to work on government infrastructure projects. Sounds real WPA to me!

 

[Duck]

Ah yeah... you just advocated putting the unemployed back to work on government infrastructure projects. Sounds real WPA to me!

I meant the ATA fleets will purchase a few politicians and get John Q Taxpayer to fund all that infrastructure, the sensors in the pavement for drone vehicles & stuff. I was NOT advocating for it. In fact I'm 100% against it.

 

[Southern Fried]

I meant the ATA fleets will purchase a few politicians and get John Q Taxpayer to fund all that infrastructure, the sensors in the pavement for drone vehicles & stuff. I was NOT advocating for it. In fact I'm 100% against it.

Not just that @Duck.... shippers/recievers are gonna have to have extensive modifications to interface with the trucks.

 

[ironpony]

Not just that @Duck.... shippers/recievers are gonna have to have extensive modifications to interface with the trucks.

That ain't gonna happen. @Ducks idea of the political gravitas of the ATA is quite overblown. They ain't got that much pull.

 

[Duck]

That ain't gonna happen. @Ducks idea of the political gravitas of the ATA is quite overblown. They ain't got that much pull.

Not overblown really.

Some insurance company thought rumble strips were a good idea,... What's it been, about ten years? Now they're on every interstate & a lot of 2 lane roads.

What would it take to guide drone trucks? Just a little solar powered chip embedded in the pavement every 100 feet or so on straightaways, every 50 feet or so on curves? They wouldn't have to transmit any data other than a simple homing signal. The damn things are almost ready to go just using GPS. Just simple transmitters in the pavement might be all they need to fine tune it for precise lane positioning.

At shippers & receivers they'd only need sensors to lead the truck to an arrival point, where a human takes over.

Hell they wouldn't even need sensors in local streets right away before these things start taking jobs. The big union LTL fleets would just have their trucks follow sensors to their terminals near the big road, where local human drivers take over. Humans will still run OTR to small towns & stuff but with the "hub & spoke" system like what the LTLs use, line haul could be entirely automated. Easily and within a decade.

The technology required already exists.

The biggest hurdle is the resistance from humans. But it's nothing a well funded campaign of social media mockery of opponents can't take care of in a few short years. That's how it's done these days.

 

[ironpony]

Not overblown really.

Some insurance company thought rumble strips were a good idea,... What's it been, about ten years? Now they're on every interstate & a lot of 2 lane roads.

What would it take to guide drone trucks? Just a little solar powered chip embedded in the pavement every 100 feet or so on straightaways, every 50 feet or so on curves? They wouldn't have to transmit any data other than a simple homing signal. The damn things are almost ready to go just using GPS. Just simple transmitters in the pavement might be all they need to fine tune it for precise lane positioning.

At shippers & receivers they'd only need sensors to lead the truck to an arrival point, where a human takes over.

Hell they wouldn't even need sensors in local streets right away before these things start taking jobs. The big union LTL fleets would just have their trucks follow sensors to their terminals near the big road, where local human drivers take over. Humans will still run OTR to small towns & stuff but with the "hub & spoke" system like what the LTLs use, line haul could be entirely automated. Easily and within a decade.

The technology required already exists.

The biggest hurdle is the resistance from humans. But it's nothing a well funded campaign of social media mockery of opponents can't take care of in a few short years. That's how it's done these days.

First you're completely underestimating the technological challenges, and second, the fallout from one of these things going haywire and killing a bunch of kids. Just one accident like that will end the whole thing. Drone trucks? Not going to happen.