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Comment by jessedhillon | Hacker News Reader

When we have reliable, safe, self-driving cars this is the first industry that should be replaced by robots. How archaic is it that we pay people to ruin their bodies while attempting the inhuman task of keeping perfectly alert for several boring hours, while piloting a giant mass at lethal speeds.

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Unfortunately when we have reliable, safe, self-driving cars, the loudest complainers will be truck drivers who now have to find new careers. I hope I don't sound too mean to hope their concerns are ignored.

I predict legislation saying that certain self-driving vehicles cannot be unmanned. This benefits the truck driver while still maintaining a reason to have one. Besides, someone will still have to fill the thing with diesel.

In the long term, though, you're most likely right; truck drivers will have to find new careers. However, said legislation combined with what I believe will be slow adoption due to high cost should give truck drivers a decade or two to migrate to other jobs.

Someone can fill the thing with diesel at the gas station. You'll get full-service pumps outside of Oregon and New Jersey! (Another industry that requires regulation to avoid firing unnecessary people).

Over that long, most of the industry should disappear through attrition alone.

If we make long-haul trucks self-driving, then we'll just have to replace the 'driver' job with 'guard' job. Otherwise it's far too simple - block the road; the robot will stop to avoid an accident, and you loot the cargo and/or the car.

It doesn't really matter what they're shipping - a truckload of TVs is nice, but even a truckload of sh*t is valuable enough to make it worthwhile.

That's fine as long as they don't kill people by driving while fatigued

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