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Comment by ryandvm | Hacker News Reader

This guy doesn't even touch on the impending changes in the freight handling industry that will result from driverless vehicles.

Imagine how much cheaper shipping becomes when you have truck drivers that can run 24 hours a day, have fewer accidents, never strike, and cost $0.30/day in "wages". Sure, there are going to be about 300,000 layoffs practically overnight, but such is life with automation.

The shipping industry is poised to change radically and, like it or not, they will have Google to thank for it.

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You talk as if the truckers will let this happen. They will fight it, even to the point of blocking the distribution centers. This will cause a lot of problems. You just can't expect these people to react as if they were corporate drones being layed off. They will rebel.

Every industry does everything possible to prevent itself from having to change.

But what does it matter? The companies who hire shipping companies or run shipping departments are themselves run by number counters -who don't care-.

Companies like Wal-Mart will have a huge interest in slashing shipping costs to gain competitive price advantage, and they historically have exerted powerful control over their supply chain. Same with companies like Amazon or FedEx.

What is a shipping company going to do when their customers are opting for new companies that are automated/cheaper? Adapt or go out of business (or attempt to regulate but shipping is no Wall Street so I doubt they have the clout to use government to stifle innovation).

Given the cost of taxi medallions in some cities[1] and taxi regulations elsewhere, I wouldn't bet against government stifling the market like it currently is for taxis.

[1] http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/10/21/why-taxi-me...

So will the bus/taxi drivers or chauffeurs. Honestly though, we can't just stop progress because a group of people will lose their jobs. If we did there would still be elevator and switchboard operators, chimney sweeps, etc. And then where would we be?

Edit: Typo.

i'm beginning to think that the biggest problem may now be legal.

with a driver there is someone to get a signature/payment/paperwork whilest a driverless vehicle would need something else.

who's responsible for damage inside the back of a truck when it made 3-4 deleiveries?

how easy would it be to stop and steal the contents of one of these vehicles if it can be stopped on a quiet road with a rolling roadblock?

my brother has done 90% of his work on the road in many service/delivery jobs. he reckons at least here in ireland there will always need to be somebody on board to load/unload/handle paperwork/report problems . or if not need to be it might for a long time be cheaper to be.

The cost of a driver vs someone who sleeps in a truck and gets people to sign papers might still be a substantial cost savings. Who knows? If there needs to be a human, maybe 'truckers' end up riding along in an autonomous vehicle for low wages. Some may watch tv while others may work another job online between stops.

Truckers aren't exactly making huge sums of money now. Their has been downward pressure for years. That is why so many do the fake log thing and work so many hours.

Arranging to have someone at the destination to unload the truck is easy. Everything else could be handled by someone at the central office using Skype video or similar. Having a human along for the ride is a huge waste of time and money.

True, but automating the driving part goes a long way to making the driver irrelevant. Instead of having someone from the shipping company spend 60 hours a week with a truck, they trucking company now just needs someone in each destination to meet with the truck for a few hours a couple times a week. And even that will only be necessary until that is automated as well.

The driving is the skilled labor. Handling the load/unload/handle and paperwork/report issues costs a lot less labor-wise

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