A convoy of self-driving trucks recently crossed Europe and arrived at the port of Rotterdam. No technology will be able to do that. Automation further away Careers – Or drive more economic efficiency – from Without a driver a truck.
Today, it costs about $4,500 to ship a full truck from Los Angeles to New York, and labor accounts for 75 percent of that cost. But these labor savings aren’t the only gains to be made from adopting a trucking system. Without a driver Trucks.
Where the law prohibits drivers from driving for more than 11 hours a day without taking an 8-hour break, Without a driver a truck The car can drive almost 24 hours a day. This means that this technology would effectively double the output of the US transportation network at 25% of the cost.
The savings become even more significant when you factor in fuel efficiency gains. The ideal cruising speed from a fuel efficiency standpoint is about 45 mph, while truck drivers who are paid by the mile drive much faster. Further fuel efficiency gains will be realized as self-driving fleets adopt platooning technologies, such as those found in Peloton, which allow trucks to line up behind each other in highway trains.
Trucks account for a large portion of the cost of all the goods we buy, so consumers everywhere will experience this change in the form of lower prices and higher living standards.
In addition, once the technology is mature enough to be commercialized, we will also enjoy significant safety benefits. This year alone, more people will be killed in traffic accidents involving trucks than in all domestic aviation accidents in the past 45 years combined. At the same time, more a truck 835 drivers were killed on the job, more than workers in any other occupation in the United States.
Even putting aside the immediate safety risks, a truck Driving is a tough job that young people don’t really want to do. The average age of a commercial driver is 55 years (and rising every year), with an expected driver shortage that will create more incentives to adopt Without a driver technology in the coming years.
Although the efficiency gains are real – too real to ignore – the technology will also have huge negative impacts. There are currently more than 1.6 million Americans working in skilled jobs. a truck Drivers, making it the most common occupation in 29 states.
Loss Careers Representing 1% of the US workforce would be a devastating blow to the economy. The negative consequences will not end there. Gas stations, highway restaurants, rest stops, motels and other businesses that cater to drivers would struggle to survive without them.
The demonstration in Europe shows this Without a driver Trucking is just around the corner. The remaining main obstacles are regulatory. We still need to create on- and off-ramps so human drivers can bring trucks onto the highways where the highway autopilot can take over. We may also need dedicated slow-moving lanes Without a driver Trucks may pose a danger to drivers. These are huge projects that can only be implemented with the active support of the government. However, it is understandable that regulators will be reluctant to allow technology that has the potential to eliminate many… Careers.
But the benefits of adopting this technology will be so great that we cannot simply ban it. A 400% improvement in performance in land transport networks will represent a huge boost to human well-being. But where would we be if we had banned mechanized agriculture on the grounds that most Americans were farming when tractors and combines were introduced in the early twentieth century?
We often discuss displacement Careers By artificial intelligence and robotics in the abstract, as something we will eventually have to address in the distant future. But the latest successful demonstration of autonomous driving a truck It shows that we can’t put off the conversation about how we treat others. Going To adapt to this new reality.
