As such, a (somewhat) well-organized industry has developed around getting replacement supplies like tires and other accessories to the site of a breakdown as quickly as possible, and this would simply need to be extended to include whatever it is autonomous trucks would require that doesn't touch the road.
(edit) Personal injury lawyers assert that it is largely a preventative maintenance issue:
http://www.kennedyhodges.com/library/the-dangers-of-a-truck-...
https://braunslaw.com/library/why-catastrophic-truck-tire-bl...
http://www.attorneystevelee.com/library/the-dangers-and-caus...
While replacing tires more frequently would reduce the number of blowouts, it would be very wasteful. In the US, DOT inspections are frequent and they look at the tires to make sure they are in good condition.
Most people think of driving on a highway as the simplest thing there is, but when you have tens of thousands of pounds, sometimes unevenly loaded, sometimes as barrels of liquid that slosh around and change your center of gravity, all that on a stormy, windy, icy day driving in the mountains, it can make for very uncomfortable driving. Is it solvable? I don't see why not, but I think it might be a bit more difficult than it sounds.
Interesting compilation of stats: https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/safety/data-and-statistics/large-t...
For every single liquid load, there are likely 50 non-liquid loads that can be better if automated. Perhaps humans only did the "dangerous" loads such as gasoline, or barrels of oil, etc? I think this isn't so black and white, but really is more of a shade of grey. Some things humans can do well autonomous trucks will do poorly. Some things humans do very poorly autonomous trucks will do very well. One of the other things is simple economics. There will likely never be autonomous truck unions picketing for shorter hours or higher pay. Note that I've got nothing against truckers unions, but think the sheer economics of the issue to carriers will inevitably force the issue eventually. The first carrier to seriously use autonomous trucking will likely be capable of delivering products to customers for cheaper, creating an imbalance in the industry. Every other company will be forced to compete, with a downward race on wages.
An approach like this for coal miners in Appalachia could work: https://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/05/06/47...
* Route planning isn't that hard of a problem; design the system such that running out of gas/battery is a whatever-sigma chance. Automation means lots and lots of data about the roads to base this on.