Can a driverless truck do this in NYC? Asking for a friend.
- Thread starter Lawrence
- Start date
I’ll back off my answer.
Hard to see on my iPhone.
It appears the driver side mirror is folded in.
A true pro move.
Of course, if that’s a Fedex Ground unit he could have carted the freight in.
Hard to see on my iPhone.
It appears the driver side mirror is folded in.
A true pro move.
Of course, if that’s a Fedex Ground unit he could have carted the freight in.
Are we sure the Fedex driver would have missed the pedestrian ?
We can’t be 100% sure.
We can’t be 100% sure.
It cracks me up when I hear (read) people talk about how there will always be truck drivers. Have you been to any of the hundreds of automated warehouses where they even load and unload the trucks with robotics. One I go to has like 10 people to run a huge warehouse where everything is computerized. They have eliminate the human error by eliminating the humans. EmBark is operating autonomous trucks between El Paso and Palm Springs, they have also gone LA to Jacksonville without issue. Several venture capitalist have spent 1 billion or more in 2017 to improve technology. Trucking is a 700 billion dollars industry. The tech industry is excited about grabbing as much of that as they can. Daimler, Volvo, Tesla, Caterpillar, US Military, Uber, GM, Starsky, Scandia, and even the post office are pushing the technology forward.
Auto accidents kill 41,000 a year in the US. (and they want to take guns away) There will be a few accidents along the way, and some lives lost. In the early years of aviation 1920-1930, 423 lives were lost. But it progressed to where it is now. Early refrigerators killed entire families because of the gases used in their equipment, but when was the last time you say the ice man on your block. Big Blue was a huge computer that took up an entire floor to do tasks that a watch can do now.
Starsky is currently operating autonomous trucks in Florida, they can use consoles in an office where each geek can operate 10-30 trucks at a time. Rio Tinto in Australia has been using autonomous trucks at its mines for a few years now. They currently have 80 running and will almost double that number by end of 2019. They found that the trucks last 700 hours longer with a 15% lower cost to operate. They are going to driverless trains next.
It is going to happen. If I was a young man, I would run from this career. I'm old and have a couple to three, maybe five years left so it won't effect me so much. And they will still need drivers for in town work for a while, until all the sensors are installed in the streets,etc... but the over the road part is going to diminish rapidly. There is way too much for the top 1% to gain by getting rid of the bottom 50%. All in the name of progress. Now where did i leave that darn smart phone. (wonder how many phone operators are still employed)
Auto accidents kill 41,000 a year in the US. (and they want to take guns away) There will be a few accidents along the way, and some lives lost. In the early years of aviation 1920-1930, 423 lives were lost. But it progressed to where it is now. Early refrigerators killed entire families because of the gases used in their equipment, but when was the last time you say the ice man on your block. Big Blue was a huge computer that took up an entire floor to do tasks that a watch can do now.
Starsky is currently operating autonomous trucks in Florida, they can use consoles in an office where each geek can operate 10-30 trucks at a time. Rio Tinto in Australia has been using autonomous trucks at its mines for a few years now. They currently have 80 running and will almost double that number by end of 2019. They found that the trucks last 700 hours longer with a 15% lower cost to operate. They are going to driverless trains next.
It is going to happen. If I was a young man, I would run from this career. I'm old and have a couple to three, maybe five years left so it won't effect me so much. And they will still need drivers for in town work for a while, until all the sensors are installed in the streets,etc... but the over the road part is going to diminish rapidly. There is way too much for the top 1% to gain by getting rid of the bottom 50%. All in the name of progress. Now where did i leave that darn smart phone. (wonder how many phone operators are still employed)
jamom123
Expert Expediter
My wife works in the field of medical transcription. A few years ago according to her and anyone else in this field, her job was doomed thanks to a computer system called Dragon. It could comprehend things said much faster and more reliable than a human (Yada yada) so it was the greatest thing ever. Companies started letting go of transcriptionist left and right.
Well, needless to say it didn't all work out according to plan, for one thing it put more work on the doctors to make sure the system is working correctly as they speak. And also Dragon could not understand and comprehend the way things were being said better than a human. My point is YES technology is gradually taking over but I believe we still have some work to do.
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Well, needless to say it didn't all work out according to plan, for one thing it put more work on the doctors to make sure the system is working correctly as they speak. And also Dragon could not understand and comprehend the way things were being said better than a human. My point is YES technology is gradually taking over but I believe we still have some work to do.
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All of this will end up coming down to liability and not technology.
All these units have a "emergency human" on board to supposedly take the controls in that what if moment. Throw a guy in a truck that is suposed to self drive and the self driving company is free from liability as they can claim it was the human's fault. We joke about the "steering wheel holders" in this industry and how dumb they are when stuff gets real, what is it going to be like when they don't even have to operate the pedals let alone steer and the software has a hiccup?
Teslas blamed that guy in Florida for basically not driving his "self" driving car. He was doing other things (watching a movie) because he thought the car was supposed to be in control.
The warehouse example above seems logical...simple actually...what could go wrong? My wife operates a fair size business that the main supplier switched to an automated wharehouse about 3 years ago. Average shipment error with humans, 6%. Automated error rate, 18.5%. If a single box fails to fall in the correct place....then all the boxes end up being one place off until one of the few humans left catches it....then they can spend days manually re sorting stock. The envisioned millions in savings have not materialized and this company will likely loose the supply contract due to poor service when it renews. The suit that thought it all up still likely got his bonus though!
All these units have a "emergency human" on board to supposedly take the controls in that what if moment. Throw a guy in a truck that is suposed to self drive and the self driving company is free from liability as they can claim it was the human's fault. We joke about the "steering wheel holders" in this industry and how dumb they are when stuff gets real, what is it going to be like when they don't even have to operate the pedals let alone steer and the software has a hiccup?
Teslas blamed that guy in Florida for basically not driving his "self" driving car. He was doing other things (watching a movie) because he thought the car was supposed to be in control.
The warehouse example above seems logical...simple actually...what could go wrong? My wife operates a fair size business that the main supplier switched to an automated wharehouse about 3 years ago. Average shipment error with humans, 6%. Automated error rate, 18.5%. If a single box fails to fall in the correct place....then all the boxes end up being one place off until one of the few humans left catches it....then they can spend days manually re sorting stock. The envisioned millions in savings have not materialized and this company will likely loose the supply contract due to poor service when it renews. The suit that thought it all up still likely got his bonus though!
jamom123
Expert Expediter
I Beleive technology will gradually advance over time, but that's just it time. These geeks envision a world completely ran by computers where humans just sit back and enjoy luxury. Unfortunately there will be a lot less humans enjoying luxury and a lot more in poverty. But no need to worry there's a long way to go.
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My wife also spent 25 years as a medical transcriptionist. And it is true that the quality of the work slipped when the automated systems took over. But it is still a dying field. They still use a small staff to check for errors and quality problems but still use the automated systems. Also the pay per line has dropped steadily for the last 30 years making it much less attractive a career.
But realize that we are in the very early stages of self driving vehicles. Technology is gaining new strides every day. It won't happen over night. It will take several years. Maybe a decade or maybe more. With air travel it took twenty years before it was common place. The forties and fifties are now called the golden years of passenger air travel.
It will take a lot of failures and there will be more fatalities just like there are now in trucking. And with each one more will be learned and problems corrected. It took Edison a 1000 failures to make the lightbulb. But with each fatal accident in a man powered truck, it will also give ammunition to the tech giants to move forward. A couple of years ago a truck driver fell asleep and killed 13 in a tour bus near Palm Springs. (now on trial for manslaughter) Accidents like this grab headlines that fuel the research to move forward.
When you talk to the millennials, they see trucking as an old (their parents) way of life. They don't understand supply chain and working long hours towards a goal. Their world is computer games and self flying drones, killing aliens and controlling their drone to spy on their neighbors. Working at a console that operates 20 trucks at a time is second nature to them. Look at their faces when they go into a truck stop on their way to a SiFi convention. They think truck drivers are the lowest life form on the planet. History and heritage mean nothing to them. If they had to use a truck stop shower, they would wilt like month old lettuce. There world is different and they will soon be running our world. Just like the high school kids telling our politicians how to govern. It is already taking place today. Tomorrow???
But realize that we are in the very early stages of self driving vehicles. Technology is gaining new strides every day. It won't happen over night. It will take several years. Maybe a decade or maybe more. With air travel it took twenty years before it was common place. The forties and fifties are now called the golden years of passenger air travel.
It will take a lot of failures and there will be more fatalities just like there are now in trucking. And with each one more will be learned and problems corrected. It took Edison a 1000 failures to make the lightbulb. But with each fatal accident in a man powered truck, it will also give ammunition to the tech giants to move forward. A couple of years ago a truck driver fell asleep and killed 13 in a tour bus near Palm Springs. (now on trial for manslaughter) Accidents like this grab headlines that fuel the research to move forward.
When you talk to the millennials, they see trucking as an old (their parents) way of life. They don't understand supply chain and working long hours towards a goal. Their world is computer games and self flying drones, killing aliens and controlling their drone to spy on their neighbors. Working at a console that operates 20 trucks at a time is second nature to them. Look at their faces when they go into a truck stop on their way to a SiFi convention. They think truck drivers are the lowest life form on the planet. History and heritage mean nothing to them. If they had to use a truck stop shower, they would wilt like month old lettuce. There world is different and they will soon be running our world. Just like the high school kids telling our politicians how to govern. It is already taking place today. Tomorrow???
jamom123
Expert Expediter
Tumbleweeds I absolutely agree, to the new generation we are dirt, it's a shame to say but that's the way they see the world. From a business stand point driverless trucks would be great, despite the higher up front cost. No more paying driver nor driver retention which is probably the biggest set back for a fleet owner. So just say I bought 10 new driverless trucks that's great right! But it's also bad because thats potentially 20 people without a job that could have been there before.
I'm not saying it's bad but the affect on global economy could be treterous. If Walmart along with most other companies uses self driving trucks that's great. But what about the people who shop at Walmart a lot of them won't have any money anymore.
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I'm not saying it's bad but the affect on global economy could be treterous. If Walmart along with most other companies uses self driving trucks that's great. But what about the people who shop at Walmart a lot of them won't have any money anymore.
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Steven Hawking said that we could replace many of the jobs people do currently with robots. He said it would be cheaper just to give everyone a flat rate kinda like well fair and everyone would be the same except for a few really rich ruling class. Everyone would need to find some way to fill their time with a hobby or something. He said we don’t need all these people. One of the scary things about AI. We would all go back to being serfs.
jamom123
Expert Expediter
Yea they do that in some places already I believe it's called socialism. I do not consider anything Stephen Hawking says as being relevant. IMHO.
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The people that own these massive corporations only stay wealthy due to everyone at the bottom end purchasing their products and services.
So lets say every job in the world is totally computers and machines, who is going to be the end user to purchases what all these monopolizing machines and computers produce if nobody has any money because they dont have any work?
What would happen eventually is the world will move away from currency and capitalism and start to turn into more of an utopian society where all of our work duties are done for us.
But in reality this is way further away than we think.
, look at the unemployment rate from like 1960 to 2018....in which time many many things have been automated.....it hasnt really changed all that much.
And as far as self driving trucks, they are going to still require drivers there to take over the system for emergencies and such. So itll just be a lot easier when youre going down the interstate.
So lets say every job in the world is totally computers and machines, who is going to be the end user to purchases what all these monopolizing machines and computers produce if nobody has any money because they dont have any work?
What would happen eventually is the world will move away from currency and capitalism and start to turn into more of an utopian society where all of our work duties are done for us.
But in reality this is way further away than we think.
, look at the unemployment rate from like 1960 to 2018....in which time many many things have been automated.....it hasnt really changed all that much. And as far as self driving trucks, they are going to still require drivers there to take over the system for emergencies and such. So itll just be a lot easier when youre going down the interstate.
Yes I believe technology is a good thing to have but you must be wise about how it's used Tech gets people lazy an lazy people are never a good thing and which safe driving Vehicles know do you really want A 20 thousand pound machine rolling down your neighborhood with out anyone behind the wheel and this is a 27 year saying this I don't want that worry in my life
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Where did they go?
When did they come from?
What has become of them now?
How much was the leakage
From the drain in the night?
And who are those dudes
In the back seat of Calvin's car?
FZ