General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe driverless truck is coming, and it’s going to automate millions of jobs
Shipping a full truckload from L.A. to New York costs around $4,500 today, with labor representing 75 percent of that cost. But those labor savings arent the only gains to be had from the adoption of driverless trucks.
Where drivers are restricted by law from driving more than 11 hours per day without taking an 8-hour break, a driverless truck can drive nearly 24 hours per day. That means the technology would effectively double the output of the U.S. transportation network at 25 percent of the cost.
And the savings become even more significant when you account for fuel efficiency gains. The optimal cruising speed from a fuel efficiency standpoint is around 45 miles per hour, whereas truckers who are paid by the mile drive much faster. Further fuel efficiencies will be had as the self-driving fleets adopt platooning technologies, like those from Peloton Technology, allowing trucks to draft behind one another in highway trains.
From Tech Crunch
2naSalit
(86,031 posts)fatal accident results in millions lost in restitution.
I wish that instead of pampering an unsustainable system of consumerism and capitalism people with all that money would develop a better way to protect our biosphere while feeding the masses.
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)Someone is gonna figure out how to stop a driverless car/truck easily.
What happens when there is a road flood-washout/rock slide/mud slide?
Rex
(65,616 posts)Although it won't happen by unmanned trucks and cars, that will never work logistically in a country like America.
Old Union Guy
(738 posts)The very rich of today are very much richer than the old "unfettered" robber barons of the past, because of massive government interference on their behalf.
This is why organized libertarianism is the realm of crackpots rather than "mainstream" business politics.
OK, some of very rich like the word libertarian, but they get goodies from the government all the same.
Rex
(65,616 posts)And the other 99% of us can end up homeless at any given missed house payment or hospital visit bill.
Lancero
(2,979 posts)2naSalit
(86,031 posts)FrodosPet
(5,169 posts)Auto-Autos are going to require a lot more trust from their users.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Rex
(65,616 posts)Might be possible on a controlled, small scale. Never work in a country like America.
Ptah
(32,983 posts)Just as it can for a human, an overabundance of white flurries can inhibit a driverless cars visibility. Autonomous cars use various types of sensors to read roads including radar, cameras, and lidar, which uses light to calculate surroundings. As Fortune previously reported, snow can cover up radar sensors and cameras, and render lidar technology useless.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027782193
Algernon Moncrieff
(5,780 posts)One possible solution is self-overinflating tires that allow studs to pop out.
Mountain driving will also be a challenge initially.
FrodosPet
(5,169 posts)Snow, rain, and fog cause massive drops in visibility. Humans can still intuitively figure out what something is in some pretty crappy conditions. OTOH, RADAR and LiDAR need some extreme filtering algorithms to cut through the overwhelming number of noise hits. Thinkaboutit...a snowflake is a lot brighter than asphalt.
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)But driving is subject to a bell curve like most other things humans do, some of us are great at it, the majority of us are only of average competence and then there are those who just should never drive.
The machines on the other hand will be talking to each other and learning from each others mistakes and successes, they will improve rapidly and simultaneously.
Sensors too are progressing rapidly, people walking around with something in their pocket that makes a Star Trek communicator look pathetic really shouldn't make a lot of negative predictions about technology.