Every example I have seen has been on very clear roads in nearly perfect conditions. This makes me question whether this is yet reality. I have three questions:
- Has anyone found a video of a level 5 self driving truck traversing snow, night, ice, dirt on the ice, heavy rain, fog, bumper-to-bumper traffic and especially random combinations of those challenges?
- My second question would be around chains. How does the self driving truck put chains on the tires at the designated chain pull-outs and then remove them when the LED road signs say to do so? Could someone please share a video of this? I can not find one.
- [Edit] Thinking about this a bit more I have a third question. Do all the weigh stations in all the states already have the equipment in place to deal with this? Does the truck get weighed or do states trust these trucks to be the weight they say they are? I am not asking about theory, rather what legal and technological structure is currently in place to deal with trailer weight and inspections? What is the process when DoT finds an issue? Do they press a button and the truck parks where the DoT officer points?
I should add that I am one of the odd people that have watched thousands of hours of dash-cam footage from truckers. That is my cheap way of traveling around the continent.
> How does the self driving truck put chains on the tires at the designated chain pull-outs and then remove them when the LED road signs say to do so?
The cynic in me says that these private companies will somehow lobby to coerce public servants (DOT workers) to do this job for them via safety regulation. There are also automated chain solutions, but those would require the trucking companies to invest.
To your first question - isn't this the point of automation? The majority of trucking is boring work driving down a road in decent conditions; take that away and you can make your truckers a lot more productive. The question then becomes, who gets the benefit of that productivity increase? In the last half century or so the answer is the owner of the capital. Also, this is a job where someone can fairly quickly go from unskilled to skilled with a middle class income. While I suspect that current truckers will be able to maintain employment for the rest of their careers by serving as expert drivers who can work in situations where automation cannot, I wonder if the career will be available/attractive to younger generations.
The truth is that large scale automated vehicles could be a godsend or a curse depending on how we as a society regulate them, but I don't believe we are on a happy path in that regard.
The cynic in me says that these private companies will somehow lobby to coerce public servants (DOT workers) to do this job for them via safety regulation.
I could see that happening. Money talks. Maybe not just lobbying but agreeing to pay more taxes to cover some of the work at least on paper and then finding a way around it.
take that away and you can make your truckers a lot more productive
I understand this concept in theory but does it really work this way in practice? If routes are cut down to specific non-level-5 conditions then the pool of truckers is cut down substantially. The current pool of truckers may start out in areas that are level 5 meaning they live there. Will the truckers relocate to areas with non level-5 conditions to meet the employment demand? Has anyone recently surveyed where all the existing inter-state truckers home bases are?
I mean, the overall math is very simple. A greater level of trucking automation allows more goods to move with less humans AKA greater productivity. Overall this is a benefit to the economy, but who benefits is harder to determine.
I understand what you are saying but could the article be making some incorrect assumptions? For short haul drivers the number may be 10% in coastal and southern states. For long haul I would estimate most of them will be traversing most of these conditions inter-state at least on third of the year and in some places half of the year. To get around that they would all have to divert to southern routes like I-10 in the US. That would add significant mileage to every route if so. I do not see how they otherwise get around the conditions I mentioned. All of them will be dealing with night, bumper-to-bumper and foggy conditions throughout the year regardless. I have not been able to find any videos of level 5 trucks traversing any of that.
- Has anyone found a video of a level 5 self driving truck traversing snow, night, ice, dirt on the ice, heavy rain, fog, bumper-to-bumper traffic and especially random combinations of those challenges?
- My second question would be around chains. How does the self driving truck put chains on the tires at the designated chain pull-outs and then remove them when the LED road signs say to do so? Could someone please share a video of this? I can not find one.
- [Edit] Thinking about this a bit more I have a third question. Do all the weigh stations in all the states already have the equipment in place to deal with this? Does the truck get weighed or do states trust these trucks to be the weight they say they are? I am not asking about theory, rather what legal and technological structure is currently in place to deal with trailer weight and inspections? What is the process when DoT finds an issue? Do they press a button and the truck parks where the DoT officer points?
I should add that I am one of the odd people that have watched thousands of hours of dash-cam footage from truckers. That is my cheap way of traveling around the continent.