Just wait until they secretly replace the trained human safety operator with this:
I mean airplanes kinda don't drive over people walking on a sidewalk...
I've seen enough dashcam footage from truck drivers being cut off in traffic and nearly causing a major accident or running over people that this seems like a pretty wise decision until the technology matures.
Trucks have a huge amount of momentum, they can't just slam the brakes like on a Tesla. Humans aren't particularly good at split second decisions but I feel experienced truckers definitely have better guts on how to react than a computer. Fully support requiring someone to keep an eye on it for now.
You'd be surprised at how quickly a truck can brake to a complete stop.
But you're right regardless. It's the momentum what makes them dangerous. If a car taps another car for half a second, the damage might be catastrophic. A semi doing the same? Yikes.
While you're at it make them pay extra for the amount trucking just fucking eats public infrastructure.
I don't usually agree with many American leftist talking points, but really what's it with railways being so little used in the USA? When you need scale with regular routes and regular volumes of anything, it's unrivaled.
US railways are heavily used. In fact, we have the largest rail network in the world.
The problem is that it's almost exclusively used for freight.
oil and car lobbies dominate congress.
You sure are right, bud. I beseach you, have you thought of the money to be made by convincing a nation to become dependant on your industry?
But rail infrastructure isn't that good yet in north America.
If only there was a solution to that which keeps getting ignored
Do truckers have a union?
Generally no.
A few larger companies do.
I thought the Teamsters were the trucker union and were relatively powerful....
Teamsters have a freight division but the total teamster membership was 1.3 in 2015 and there were 3.6 million truckers in the United States in 2020, so I wouldn’t say most truckers are in a union.
Teamsters doesn’t disclose what percent of their membership is made up by their freight division
Don't forget that the package division(ups) is a large chunk of their membership.
According to their website "The Package Division is the union’s largest division, serving hundreds of thousands of members throughout North America."
Dunno shit that. My dad was teamsters, but he was just a warehouse worker.
Nope. Many are independent contractors.
Why did they do this?
According to the article, safety concerns and job protection
Probably to protect jobs. They are willing to risk our lives in cities since they allow autonomous cars there. So it’s unlikely that they have safety concerns with trucks
They'll just go secretive and underground like in that Simpsons episode
So California is down with the Decepticons?
Fuck Optimus Prime?
Bold move.
Sure, wouldn't want them teaming up with the robo taxis already clogging SF streets.
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