
A trucker trying to hack the haulage industry [video] - yctay
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30588704
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acadien
Self driving cars are going to upend this industry (eventually). Many mining
companies are actively working on getting their mining equipment to be
automated to do the riskier jobs without risking drivers. The same ideas apply
here. Remove the driver and suddenly you have a truck that runs deliveries
24/7 and only stops to refuel and get serviced. One would hope that as the
technology gets more sophisticated the number of accidents would drop, the
vehicles could safely drive and react at higher speeds, and of course self
optimize their routes and driving styles to save on fuel.

~~~
at-fates-hands
I've always be leery of self driving cars. They run on software. Software is
only is good as the guy programming it.

What happens when the software develops a bug? Be it in the middle of rush
hour traffic, or hurling down the highway at 70mph?

For all of the great things we know self driving cars can potentially bring to
the table, how do we account for the issue of buggy software?

~~~
rogerbinns
You mean you'd prefer humans to do the driving? Youtube is full of human
examples - start here as an example [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwL7S--
E5oQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwL7S--E5oQ) \- and note that it ranges
from minor fender benders through some very serious injuries and destruction.

There are lots of examples of not being able to stay in lane, pulling out, not
seeing stopped traffic, not paying attention to surroundings. Humans can't
even get the trivial simple things right in broad daylight.

(Yes I am aware that you are in the 97% of drivers who are absolutely
convinced they are above average. That doesn't make it true. Yes the video
mainly has clips from Russia - you can find USA based ones too. And a 9/11
happens on US roads each and every month. People are dying in large numbers
because of human drivers.)

Edit: added warning about video content

~~~
plaguuuuuu
All the same, I have a large amount of trust in my own driving. I trust my
driving more than my own programming. And I sure as hell trust my code more
than some sketchy offshore team's. It's only a matter of time before the first
car segfaults.

Plus it's a huge security risk. Cars are internet-connected these days.

~~~
TeMPOraL
Well, for one you can be pretty sure that self-driving car software isn't
going to be written by hippie webdevs changing frameworks every other week.
Companies and programmers that tend to work on this kind of software have
pretty good track records - we don't see planes falling out of the sky or
medical machines randomly killing patients all the time. Uou're going to have
an app store for your car drivers.

~~~
rogerbinns
Cars have it simpler than planes etc too. In particular they can always fail
safe by stopping - something that isn't applicable to planes. Other
complexities aren't present either due to the 2d nature of roads - for example
car software doesn't have to worry about stalls, coffin corner or similar.

I believe that self driving cars will primarily be owned by companies with
fleets of them, rather than individual ownership we have today. It doesn't
make sense to have them sitting idle 23 hours a day. The owner companies will
have a very strong incentive for safety since even rumours would be bad for
business. They will also be in a better position to do something about it due
to having multiple vehicles.

~~~
icebraining
_they can always fail safe by stopping_

Not if you're in a highway.

~~~
rogerbinns
Especially on a highway. I am talking about a situation where normal operation
isn't possible such as due to hardware or software failure. Of course it isn't
ideal, but wouldn't be much of a problem if the other vehicles on the road are
driverless. (To be clear I mean they can just stop in the middle of the road
if things are bad.)

A plane can't just let go of all control surfaces. Heck it can't even leave
them where they are. It must do something and always must provide some degree
of control. A flying plane is moving at several hundred miles an hour and
cannot stop.

------
Evolved
This guy is fantastic for being so proactive in his approach while being
careful to (what appears to) run the system in such a way that it does not
interfere with the way the truck operates. Not to mention the saved seconds or
minutes which add up after a while.

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rwhitman
Kind of fascinating that his preferred interface is physical buttons built
into the cab, and a barcode scanner.

I can't imagine no one has built mobile software in this space yet, so there's
got to be a reason he doesn't have a tablet sitting on his dashboard. He even
built an app but curiously didn't opt to use that as his primary interface for
the other functions. Says something about what a working truck driver actually
needs & wants vs what a software developer would expect as the solution here.

~~~
bobbles
Tactile feedback, muscle memory or feeling for buttons without moving eyeline
around, not getting grease/dirty hands all over a tablet, etc

~~~
rwhitman
I just realized that truck drivers may also be regulated regarding what types
of devices they can have when driving, which would explain a lot. Yellow cabs
in NYC for instance are forbidden to use GPS due to safety reasons and
generally rely on dispatchers to get around. Truckers probably have even more
safety rules to follow

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aembleton
Brilliant. Seems to be a simple but effective time saver.

He's got more information here:
[http://www.idatatruck.co.uk/](http://www.idatatruck.co.uk/)

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drmarianus
It is nearly unbelievable to me that this hasn't been done already by shipping
companies.

~~~
_-__---
In the US, I do believe that this technology exists. Whether or not all
shipping firms have adopted it, I'm not certain.

As for the UK, I have even less of an idea. Either way, this fella had to call
in each time a haul was transferred, so it seems that he's saved himself and
the company a bit of trouble.

~~~
mbreese
It does exist in the US. The ones I've seen are linked to GPS trackers that
are added to fleets, so it's more a company adopted thing than a driver
adopted thing.

The amount of data that you can get is pretty impressive from tracking a
driver in real-time. There are even versions with cameras pointed at the
driver and the road to record any "adverse events". In this way, it's less
focused on the driver and more focused on fleet management.

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towelguy
Instead of going through all the hassle of doing barcodes and getting a
barcode scanner, he could make a mobile application with buttons for each
predefined message to send over email/twitter. Probably something like this
already exists.

------
throw7
I don't have video... can someone summarize what this guy did in plain text?

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eutropia
Saw his code had a bunch of sleep() statements in it -- I wonder why that is?

~~~
Groxx
they appear to always be on gpio 23 and 24, which a comment implies is for
making beeping sounds (I'm guesing two-tone?). I'm guessing it's just to play
beep sequences after it has done X or Y.

~~~
JoblessWonder
In the BBC video you can hear a few different beep patterns at 3:00-3:08.

