
Truck Driver Shortage to reach 175,000 in 2024 - SQL2219
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-17/-smokey-and-the-bandit-charm-fades-as-truck-driver-hiring-lags
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floho_hh
could this have a positive effect for the introduction (technical, legal,
societal) of autonomous trucks? I'd imagine that at least on the political
side, there will be less pressure to protect soon-to-be-obsolete jobs when
there are too few people wanting to do the work in the first place.

BTW, I don't buy the "we want to make highways safer, not cut the truck driver
out of the equation" speak. If I just need personnel on site to handle
on-/offloading and paperwork, maybe maneuvering into the loading bay, there is
no justification to carry that personnel on the truck.

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warrenm
>If I just need personnel on site to handle on-/offloading and paperwork,
maybe maneuvering into the loading bay, there is no justification to carry
that personnel on the truck

Or you put them on the truck like the train operators in Singapore - they're
there in case something goes wrong, not to actually run the trains

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warrenm
This is why it's logistics companies that are investing the most (and the
longest) in fully-autonomous and augmented-assistance trucks
([http://mashable.com/2016/04/05/mercedes-actros-platoon-
europ...](http://mashable.com/2016/04/05/mercedes-actros-platoon-
europe/#_rbnZ7l0CiqD))

I remember seeing self-driving trucks being tested 15+ years ago on an episode
of History Channel's _Modern Marvels_

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SQL2219
What does this do to Amazon's business model?

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warrenm
Since they're moving towards their own logistics subsystems (everything from
drones to cars _a la_ Lyft to trucks to planes) ... I imagine not much

