Driverless Trucks

There are about 3 million trucks drivers across the US that risk having their jobs taken away by automated trucks. There are both positive and negative aspects of this change in terms of safety and economic gain. For the truck drivers, there are mainly negative aspects as their jobs are being taken away by robots but there are still positives.

When looking at the positive sides, there are many different sides to consider because it would affect people differently. For companies, it would be cheaper because they no longer need to pay drivers for driving their products across the country. Another aspect to consider is safety, worldwide there are 1.25 million deaths annually and 40, 000 in the US alone which are due to human error. With automated trucks, these numbers would be greatly reduced.

On the flip side, the negative pieces are mainly against the drivers as they lose their jobs and source of income. For some families, this may be the only source of income and they are now left to find another job. This is such a big issue because many of the drivers have been driving their whole life and are expecting to retire as drivers, however, when their job is taken this option is thrown away. Many of them also don't have a college degree so it is hard to get a different job and especially since many of them are older, they would have a hard time relearning and finding a new job.

Overall, there are positive and negative sides to be evaluated when considering automated trucks and the people that would be affected. However, self-driving cars are currently being tested and I think it will be a while until working automated trucks will be used. 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/17/truck-drivers-automation-tesla-elon-musk

Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 8, 2019 at 8:44 AM

    Not only would the people that drive trucks be completely against driverless trucks, but with the numerous wrecks that Telsa cars have racked up while on auto-pilot, many other people on the road will have objections to 18-wheelers being unmanned. I think that it will take a lot of convincing for the American public to trust their lives with non-living beings. Even if human error causes more deaths than driverless vehicles statistically, people are going to be more willing to trust their lives with another human as opposed to a robot.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. AnonymousMarch 8, 2019 at 12:01 PM

      I think this current opinion will fade out within a relatively short amount of time. I think were looking at 5-10 years max before we see driver-less cars being available to consumers and everyone is going to want them because they can do their homework while they get driven to school, have their car pick them up, drink and be driven, eat breakfast on the way to work etc. As you mentioned these cars are already statistically safer. We might be irrational, but as these cars get better they will be quickly adapted.

      Even if it doesn't happen soon, it probably is going to happen and I think we should try and be ready for it. How do you think we should prepare?

      Delete
    2. KevinMarch 10, 2019 at 2:39 PM

      It is true that many believe self driving vehicles will be inevitable, but according to a Pew Research Center report, less than half of Americans would want to actually ride in an automated car, for obvious reasons such as safety and trust. However, as Ben mentioned, we should prepare for the inevitable and perhaps look at the benefits of self driving trucks. Once the trucking industry fully implements automated trucks, it could save around 100 to 125 billion dollars. Companies such as UPS and FedEx would also benefit from this change. Although there are multiple aspects to this issue, we should be looking towards the future and how to adapt to the rapid changes.
      https://qz.com/1095562/most-americans-think-self-driving-cars-are-inevitable-but-fewer-than-half-would-ride-in-one/
      https://www.businessinsider.com/driverless-trucks-300-billion-savings-tesla-2017-11

      Delete

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