The Self-Driving Truck Has Finally Happened
I remember reading a news story about a month ago that said there was a shortage of truck drivers now, mainly because the younger generation wasn’t showing any interest in such a career. It really isn’t any mystery why. We’ve been told for several years that self-driving cars are going to be a thing, so why would they invest any time or effort into a vocation that’s doomed?
We got further proof today, when the story broke that last week Anheuser-Busch had pulled off the world’s first self-guided truck shipment. For 120 miles on a stretch of Colorado freeway, a truck full of beer drove itself from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs thanks to experimental technology developed by the Otto company, a subsidiary of Uber. You better believe Uber will be applying this tech to cars…..”Uber driver” is a doomed career too.
“The incredible success of this pilot shipment is an example of what is possible when you deploy self-driving technology,” said Otto’s co-Founder, Lior Ron.
Now for the catch: this truck wasn’t completely devoid of humans. There was a man sitting in the passenger seat ready to take control if anything went wrong. I imagine it would be difficult for a computer to anticipate EVERY problem (and there’s the possibility of a malfunction), so the career of truck driving could potentially be replaced by truck-sitting. That’s an even lazier job, and if you think those pot-bellies are big now…