
Freightliner Inspiration Truck Unveiled at Hoover Dam - tpatke
http://www.freightlinerinspiration.com/newsroom/press/inspiration-truck-unveiled/
======
jaynos
Since using the Hoover Dam as a projection screen is probably cooler than the
actual truck, I dug up a link that show it. Full article, but the photo in
question is halfway down [0].

edit: Found more background and pictures on the projection. Started a new
thread so as not to hijack [1].

[0] [http://www.trucknews.com/mobile-and-it/freightliners-
autonom...](http://www.trucknews.com/mobile-and-it/freightliners-autonomously-
driven-inspiration-truck-debuts-in-record-setting-fashion/1003065417/)

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9504958](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9504958)

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sbarre
So, if I understand this, there is still a human in the truck, they're just
not driving most of the time?

~~~
pgeorgi
yes, for example for all parts of the route that are not on a highway.

They have the numbers that it's less stressful work, which they'll no doubt
manage to compensate for soon enough with more work. They can also collect
data that may help automating larger parts of the route. Or evidence that
machines are more reliable than humans (making the case for building these
things without a driver's seat)

~~~
jotm
Basically, these drivers get first seat tickets to watching their jobs slowly
being taken away from them by machines.

~~~
gambiting
Can't the same thing be said about pilots though? They spend something like 1%
of the total flight time actually controlling the plane, everything else is
automated. Yet we can't actually get rid of them,because you always need to
have someone who knows what to do in case of an emergency. I imagine it will
be the same with truck drivers.

~~~
jotm
I've never considered that, I thought they're there to please the
government/bureaucracy (need to have a human, etc.). And judging by some of
the latest plane crashes, a complete autopilot may not be that bad of an idea.

In case of trucks, I've always liked the idea of a convoy with one manned
truck and several automated drones - seems like a good compromise.

~~~
gambiting
>> And judging by some of the latest plane crashes, a complete autopilot may
not be that bad of an idea

Well no - the problem with problems is that you can never predict all of them,
and complete autopilot would either need to exhibit strong AI to deal with
all(not possible right now) or have them all coded in(also not possible). Not
to mention that complete power loss can, and has happened before - even if the
steering still has power, without a computer running it won't do much good
without someone who can move the stick. Or look at the landing on the Hudson
River - would any computer ever decide to try it? I think the answer is no. If
we had a ridiculously good AI, I think it would decide to crash land the plane
somewhere with no people. River has people. There were bridges in the way. AI
might not be 100% capable of gliding the plane with no engine trust and broken
sensors -it would have simply not tried that landing. That plane only landed
safely because the captain had experience with gliders and knew what to do.

~~~
Dylan16807
The perfect is the enemy of the good.

It's not like all pilots without that much glider experience are 'unsafe'
because they can't recover in that extremely particular set of circumstances.

Even if we ignore the possibility of remote control, you don't need an
autopilot that's better in every way than every existing pilot. You just need
one that's better than the average pilot.

~~~
gambiting
That is just deeply untrue. Even if automatic pilots had statistically less
accidents than real ones, any accident caused by machine error would be
greatly publicized, and manufacturer of the autopilot would have to pay $$$ in
damages.

Let's use a different argument, just for the sake of it. Let's assume there
exists a medical device, which never fails on its own, but due to operator
errors 1/10000 patients who use this machine die.

Now someone makes a fully automated machine,but due to problems with
programming it kills 1/100000 patients it treats(completely on random). Even
though it's 10x better than your average operator, such machine would be
banned from the market quicker than you can say "litigation". In our society
human errors are much more easily forgiven than computer errors, because
everyone believes that they could have been prevented. And therefore, a truck
autopilot wouldn't need to be just better than your average driver - it would
need to be absolutely perfect. And I don't think we are ready for perfect yet.

~~~
Dylan16807
People are stupid, but insurance companies are less stupid. It can be made to
work, you just need enough of a profit potential for people to put up with the
hassle.

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jokr004
Am I being irrational or is anyone else infuriated by the use of "an
historic"? No one would ever say "an history", why do people say this?

~~~
lojack
> A historic is more common in both American and British English, but both
> usages are sufficiently common to be considered correct.

[http://www.betterwritingskills.com/tip-w005.html](http://www.betterwritingskills.com/tip-w005.html)

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unics
This of course reminds me of the story about a lawsuit Winnebago fought about
a guy who activated cruise-control and went back to make a sandwich.

Does anyone else see the possibility of seeing some very strange activities
associated with drivers with way too much time on their hands being reported
in the near future?

I've seen some pretty wild things going down highways but the possibilities
are endless with autopilot.

~~~
hippich
for what it worth - tried to find story about lawsuit you mentioned, when
stumbled upon this -
[http://www.stellaawards.com/bogus.html](http://www.stellaawards.com/bogus.html)
:)

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delinka
Is this article missing photos or is it just the mobile version that's missing
them?

~~~
michaelbuckbee
It's a straight text press release, I found a Car and Driver gallery here:
[http://www.caranddriver.com/photo-gallery/the-trucks-are-
ali...](http://www.caranddriver.com/photo-gallery/the-trucks-are-alive-
freightliner-gets-license-to-run-autonomous-semi-truck#31) \- the truck pretty
much looks like a semi truck, the interesting thing to me is the image I
linked to, which is the UI for 'highway pilot' mode.

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samsolomon
Calling this thing “The Inspiration” is the most uninspiring thing about this
truck. It's difficult to make it through the video with all of the buzzwords.

Seems like a huge missed opportunity, because it’s a pretty impressive
accomplishment.

~~~
zrail
Not that you're wrong, but I don't think you're the target market. The people
who eventually buy these trucks probably eat all that up, since it's probably
pretty new to them.

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mrfusion
Why no pictures?

