How would you feel on the interstate being followed by a driverless autonomous tractor trailer

walterjay

walterjay

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Trucking industry is headed into autonomous trucking. I think California is in the midst of allowing this. Opponents are demanding that a person be present in the cab during initial phase.
I would want to get out of the way of one of those trucks.
What do you think and feel about it.
 
I already know one person locally who was killed by autonomous driving. If driven manually he would be here today.
 
Food for thought:

A railroad worker was just killed in a CSX rail yard in Ohio by a remote-controlled train. This is the third such incident to happen in the US. The railroads have been pushing to go to driverless locomotives for several years.

Now think about those driverless trucks plowing into a school bus full of kids. It's gonna happen, folks.
 
Which is worse? An autonomously operated truck? Or one being driven by some kid who doesn't really care about anything, but is only there because the wages were too good to pass up? One of those that the professional drivers refer to as a steering wheel holder? And he just partied all last night with his friends. Oh, and while right in front of you, he drops his cell phone, and decides to reach for it.

I don't know if we are quite ready for autonomously operated heavy trucks. But I'm sure it is coming some day. I suspect that it is when, and not if, the day arrives that the technology has made the improvements to where we have confidence in this type of technology, I think it will be something we are comfortable with. But we aren't there yet. Not today.
 
Zee09 said:
How about you make a panic stop and it nails you?
Click to expand...

On the list of concerns auto brake is pretty low and in Cali the reg tow limit is low - 55MPH right lane only.

Im more concerned about it merging into or right in front of me going 20MPH slower, or coming apart, or stalling up a big hill in front of me.
 
Can it really be any worse than some of the steering wheel holders I see on the interstates today? No disrespect to the tried and true truck drivers but due to the shortage of drivers I think we have allowed almost anyone to drive an 80,000lb semi. Not a fan of autonomous but hopefully it knows when to brake.

Just my $0.02
 
How do I feel? I think not worse than a truck driver who might have overworked or any other possible scenarios. My guess is most likely these trucks would start self driving when nobody is on the road initially to gain more experience and then gradually find out where they (or the road) needs to be improved. I don't think they will jump straight to tailgating passenger cars, they would likely be slightly slower so passenger cars would keep passing them instead.

I do think initially only limited route would be self driving and they would cherry pick those roads, pay to fix up the conditions (mainly reflectors that helps guide sensors and cameras), drive at night, then slowly expand based on any close call they found along the way.

AI won't be much worse than a fresh 18 year old just started driving trucks, that's not a too difficult bar.
 
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