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Waymo teams up with trucker JB Hunt on autonomous freight hauling in Texas

Mike

Well-Known Member
The plan is to use autonomous trucks to haul freight along Interstate 45 in Texas

Waymo’s autonomous trucking unit got a boost with the announcement that it would be teaming up with JB Hunt Transport Services, a 56-year-old company based in Arkansas. The two companies will work collaboratively on a pilot project to evaluate the use of Waymo’s autonomous technology to move freight.

The test will take place in Texas, with Waymo’s Class 8 autonomous truck hauling goods along Interstate 45 between facilities in Houston and Fort Worth for one of JB Hunt’s customers. The trucks will operate autonomously but will be supervised by two Waymo employees, a commercially licensed driver and a software engineer, from the cab of the vehicle. If everything goes smoothly, Waymo and JB Hunt could decide to work together on more freight hauls in the future.

 
All Truck Drivers should immediately quit working at JB Hunt or any other company that has anything to do with this. We shouldn’t be helping companies eliminate the driver.
 
All Truck Drivers should immediately quit working at JB Hunt or any other company that has anything to do with this. We shouldn’t be helping companies eliminate the driver.

You believe this is really going to eliminate the driver? I honestly don't foresee this happening as someone will most likely always be in the truck, even if they do successfully go autonomous.
 
You believe this is really going to eliminate the driver?
I believe that’s the goal. Probably decades away at least. But I don’t think they are spending all this money on R&D to make our lives easier. The long term goal is to not have to pay a driver.
 
You believe this is really going to eliminate the driver? I honestly don't foresee this happening as someone will most likely always be in the truck, even if they do successfully go autonomous.
Labor and fuel costs are a trucking company's biggest expenses.

Why would they be investing so much in self driving trucks if they weren't planning on eliminating the drivers?

All this talk about drivers still being in the trucks is just bullshit intended to keep everybody pacified instead of pushing back against it.

Yeah maybe for a while they'll have babysitters in the truck but their goal, like with all other types of automation, is to completely eliminate paid employees.

I mean seriously... Why would they buy super expensive self driving trucks if they still have to pay drivers?
 
I mean seriously... Why would they buy super expensive self driving trucks if they still have to pay drivers?

How expensive will they be once they are mainstream?

I don’t see the entire job becoming automated, if we even get to where all roads are capable of handling automated trucks.
 
How expensive will they be once they are mainstream?

I don’t see the entire job becoming automated, if we even get to where all roads are capable of handling automated trucks.
All the drivers who are put out of a job by these things will be competing for the jobs that remain, driving down driver pay. Or they'll leave the industry and drive wages down somewhere else.

But who cares, right? You own your own business. It won't matter to you.

It's just "fear mongering" anyway. 🙄
 
All the drivers who are put out of a job by these things will be competing for the jobs that remain, driving down driver pay. Or they'll leave the industry and drive wages down somewhere else.

But who cares, right? You own your own business. It won't matter to you.

It's just "fear mongering" anyway. 🙄
No need for smart ass responses. Been too much of that around here as of late.

What I said is I don’t see the job becoming fully automated. I think drivers will remain in the trucks.

If it were to go fully automated, by the time it does get to that, many other things will be automated and already leaving out industry flooded it people looking for work.

The next few decades are going to be interesting. On one hand, government paychecks looks stupid. On the other hand, technology could potentially automate so much of the working world that we simply don’t have near the amount of jobs anymore. I say potentially because I’m not too positive about the idea of jobs becoming fully automated without someone supervising each job.

Lots of ideas out there, just not sure how much of it will become reality.
 
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
Meh, Wadda ya gonna do? :dunno: If it happens during our working lifetime, it happens.
Only @Mike can change the name of the forum to.. We used to be truck drivers, Nerds! they terk er JERBS!

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The plan is to use autonomous trucks to haul freight along Interstate 45 in Texas

Waymo’s autonomous trucking unit got a boost with the announcement that it would be teaming up with JB Hunt Transport Services, a 56-year-old company based in Arkansas. The two companies will work collaboratively on a pilot project to evaluate the use of Waymo’s autonomous technology to move freight.

The test will take place in Texas, with Waymo’s Class 8 autonomous truck hauling goods along Interstate 45 between facilities in Houston and Fort Worth for one of JB Hunt’s customers. The trucks will operate autonomously but will be supervised by two Waymo employees, a commercially licensed driver and a software engineer, from the cab of the vehicle. If everything goes smoothly, Waymo and JB Hunt could decide to work together on more freight hauls in the future.

Four people in one truck in Texas. Sounds like a sweaty ol' swamp crotch fun time.

Hopefully they do it in winter. 😃👍
 
The plan is to use autonomous trucks to haul freight along Interstate 45 in Texas

Waymo’s autonomous trucking unit got a boost with the announcement that it would be teaming up with JB Hunt Transport Services, a 56-year-old company based in Arkansas. The two companies will work collaboratively on a pilot project to evaluate the use of Waymo’s autonomous technology to move freight.

The test will take place in Texas, with Waymo’s Class 8 autonomous truck hauling goods along Interstate 45 between facilities in Houston and Fort Worth for one of JB Hunt’s customers. The trucks will operate autonomously but will be supervised by two Waymo employees, a commercially licensed driver and a software engineer, from the cab of the vehicle. If everything goes smoothly, Waymo and JB Hunt could decide to work together on more freight hauls in the future.

I thought the Chinese already had RFID tracking on Containers up I-35 from down Laredo.

Apparently for awhile it was more Cost Effective to drop stuff in Mexico and Guatemala run it up on Trains to Laredo because of the "Jones Act"

Trucking "rates" from Laredo Texas must've been that much cheaper to "Justify" all that hassle
 

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