Articulate Trucker

[togor]

Thought-provoking interview.

[Vern Humphrey]

We have a shortage of drivers because we don't yet have autonomously-driven trucks. When autonomous drive is perfected, no on will be able to resist it. The driver is limited by law to 11 hours a day -- but the truck can run 23 hours a day. Fitting an autonomous-drive mode to a truck is like getting an extra truck for free.

[dogtag]

When the Human element is removed from an activity,
I hate to think what the eventual outcome will be.

[Vern Humphrey]

When the Human element is removed from an activity,
I hate to think what the eventual outcome will be.

Given that computers don't drink, use drugs, text while driving and so on, things may get better. Anyway, we'll certainly see, won't we?

[togor]

When the Human element is removed from an activity,
I hate to think what the eventual outcome will be.

A quick call to Customer Service offers a clue.

[clintonhater]

We have a shortage of drivers because we don't yet have autonomously-driven trucks.

The driver said it was because deregulation reduced wages so drastically. Can't believe the Teamsters Union will permit this to happen, & I hope they don't.

[Vern Humphrey]

The driver said it was because deregulation reduced wages so drastically. Can't believe the Teamsters Union will permit this to happen, & I hope they don't.

Very few truckers are unionized these days. But what you see is Adam Smith in action -- wages (or prices) fall, and the supply of workers (or goods) diminishes. If you need more workers (or goods) you have to offer more. With rising wages (or prices) more workers (or goods) come into the market until equilibrium is reached.

What that tells us is that the market works like an auto pilot -- it doesn't maintain a steady course, it wanders around the course, corrects and comes back, then wanders a bit off, corrects again, and so on.

[dogtag]

A quick call to Customer Service offers a clue.

These things have no feelings, no emotions.
If it was a choice between swerving to avoid a pedestrian
and losing the load or hitting the pedestrian and saving the load ?

[Vern Humphrey]

These things have no feelings, no emotions.
If it was a choice between swerving to avoid a pedestrian
and losing the load or hitting the pedestrian and saving the load ?

The outcome would depend on the programming. And if the truck chose to hit the pedestrian, there would be an investigation, and if the investigation showed the system was programmed to kill innocent people, there would be all hell to pay. The people who program the system would have to have pond scum for brains to program it like that.