It's been this way for as long as trucking has existed. A driver, their rig
and the road. What happens to that equation when the transformative power
of artificial intelligence reshapes the landscape of trucking through
self-driving vehicle technology. First the upside: autonomous vehicle technology
will get goods from the warehouse to the storehouse to your house, faster and
cheaper than ever before. All while easing concerns about
accidents caused by distracted or drowsy drivers. The technology could remove 1.9
million American workers from the driver's seat. How many of them wind up
in the unemployment line is up for debate. You look at on our daily average
the impact of truck drivers coming here and then being taken away from
self-driving vehicles... a loss of about a third of our business. My truck has a
collision avoidance on it.. now which I find a pain in the ****.
Self-drivings trucks is something
obviously that's going to be coming down the road... I think everybody sees the
writing on the wall.
The drivers still I think gonna be viable for a long time and even
with a fully automated truck I think they're still gonna have to have
somebody in that cab who override it something goes
wrong as you know computers do. Self-driving vehicles have already
claimed the lives of pedestrians and passengers alike in deadly glitches.
How can manufacturers ensure those problems don't persist and one of the
anarchists looking to cause harm by commandeering autonomous trucks through
cyber hacking. Leaders from all sectors of the economy need a list of road rules
to navigate the autonomous trucking revolution ahead and not just freight
companies, the retailers and manufacturers that rely on the industry
or those that regulate it, must equip themselves for the road ahead.
They'll need guardrails for the intrepid technologists racing to commercialize
autonomous vehicles and high octane fuel for those business laggards that need to
rev their engines of innovation. Signposts for the legislators and
policymakers shaping regulations for advancement of all stakeholders and the
workers that drive this whole industry need a map to find their link in the
supply chain. We need to plan for new revenue that new revenue is in our
parking lots and also in truck service shops. Self-driving trucks would need
that as well. So we would turn our parking lots into reserved parking
spaces that would have to be pre-planned out and then the installation of a truck
shop at our site to be able to service those vehicles which would involve
computer programming people that would be able to repair those items along with
regular diesel mechanics and semi-truck mechanics as well. All the key
players can learn to take the will of their own journey if they abide by the
following road rules: be on time but no one's ago; stay in your lane;
play nice with the robots; prepare for the fast lane; keep your eyes on the road.
The autonomous future of trucking is technologically and economically
thrilling but the disruption it brings has a downside for those upended and
left behind by the changes to come. Anything that's negative can be changed
to a positive by planning and making sure that you're prepared for it when it
comes. Seemingly by the month, the rules of the road for autonomous vehicles
grows more and more difficult to navigate.
Brace yourself; the hands-off trucking revolution is decidedly a hands-on
endeavor. You know it comes to backing into a dock some of them would be kind of
nice looking back itself in. The Cognizant Center for the Future of Work
has been writing about the future of trucking to the rise of AI-powered
autonomous vehicles. To learn more, please visit futureofwork.com