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Comment by 001sky | Hacker News Reader

I think the market for trucks will be far more disrupted. The idea of having "drone" containers seems far more easily realized and higher value added than civilian passenger autos. The average A->B distances are longer (miles/trip), the routes simpler (turns/mile) and the roads are less complex (fewer on-grade intersections). It seems an automated "carpool lane" would be a huge benefit. As would the avoidance of speeding and drowsy driving by semi/lorry drivers. Furthermore, removing this rolling stock from passenger car rights of way would itself be an improvement in safety (if for no other reason than > visibility).

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Also trucks are used in adverse environments. In the mining industry remote driven and more autonomous vehicles are already being rolled out:

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/296907,rio-tinto-prepares-mine...

The US military is also pushing remotely driven supply vehicles.

Then the next market is trucks on highways.

It's a bit like rail. People are obsessed with passenger rail but tend to ignore freight rail. For instance, how many people know that the US freight rail system is excellent?

An interesting side issue you didn't consider is at least in the initial roll out phase you simply make an automated "train" with ten trucks, and the lead truck driven by human (or at least has a human on board).

I thought they have already been doing this in Australia[1] to some degree. I suppose they are not independent trucks but then I'm not sure what the new advantages are if a person is still involved. With the Powertrain, they can split the trailers apart at destination and use normal cabs for distribution I guess.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_train

This will save a lot of energy since the drag of the truck in front will suck the truck behind. Sorry, I lack the technical terms to describe it.

The term is "drafting" or "slipstreaming". The concept has been part of the allure of autonomous vehicle engineering for decades, and is already praticed by human truck drivers (though they cannot follow as closely as automated systems would be able to).

I've done it myself in a passenger car on long trips -- once covered most of a state at high speeds behind a truck who seemed bent on making his schedule. 75+ MPH and my fuel consumption was well below typical for that leg of the trip.

Yep, I always thought that driverless trucks will come before that kind of cars. Better safety, lower costs, faster shipping, because there are no driver breaks.

I always wonder what the world will be like with thousands of truck and taxi drivers out of work. I know the same could be said for banking clerks (ATM), checkout clerks (automated checkout counters) etc. But I suspect the demographic is quite different.

Maybe we went through something similar when digging machines replaced people with shovels.

My direct interaction with the profession would indicate you'll still need a dude sitting in the cab, because no one trusts anyone WRT inventory control and you still need human body to load/unload.

The main difference is instead of requiring the coveted commercial drivers license plus or minus hazmat certs, you'll have a grunt laborer who optimistically knows how to count in english and can handle a pallet jack and/or electric forklift.

Well looking on the bright side, there'll be a lot of new jobs created as gas station attendants for filling all the automated vehicles... until that gets automated.

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