from the depending-on-your-definition-of-cross-country dept.
A Driverless Truck Got a Shipment Cross-Country 10 Hours Faster Than a Human Driver:
Last month TuSimple, a transportation company focused on self-driving technology for heavy-duty trucks, shipped a truckload of watermelons from Arizona to Oklahoma using the truck's autonomous system for over 80 percent of the journey. The starting point was Nogales, at Arizon's southern end right on the border with Mexico. A human driver took the wheel for the first 60 miles or so, from Nogales to Tucson—but from there the truck went on auto-pilot, and not just for a little while. It drove itself all the way to Dallas, 950 miles to the east (there was a human safety driver on board the whole time, but not controlling the truck).
[...] From Dallas, the human driver took over again and drove the final 200 miles to a distribution center in Oklahoma City. From there, the watermelons were inspected—nothing to see here, they were in better shape than they would've been with a human driving the whole time—then distributed to stores all over the state.
The reason the watermelons were in better shape was because they were a day fresher. This is one angle TuSimple is hoping will boost its business. "We believe the food industry is one of many that will greatly benefit from the use of TuSimple's autonomous trucking technology," said Jim Mullen, the company's chief administrative officer. "Given the fact that autonomous trucks can operate nearly continuously without taking a break means fresh produce can be moved from origin to destination faster, resulting in fresher food and less waste."
[...] If regulation is one looming question around automating freight, another is technological unemployment: what about all the human drivers who'll be left without jobs when computers take over hauling produce from state to state?
What may actually happen is that autonomous driving tech helps fill a shortage of labor in long-haul trucking, which is seeing increasingly high turnover, particularly with entry-level drivers. An episode of NPR's Planet Moneyfrom August 2020 discussed how the job has gotten harder on workers. And humans will still be a big part of the equation for many years to come, acting as safety drivers and last-mile drivers—and their jobs will be a lot easier than they are now.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by looorg on Wednesday June 02 2021, @02:35PM (23 children)
But why was it faster? The article is a bit light on it. You sort of have to guess or infer the reasoning behind the 10h gap. It's not cause the AI is a much better driver, it seems to have been the human handicap of actually needing or being by law required to take breaks. You have mandatory rest breaks and then all the normal stuff like you might wanna stretch your legs, go to the bathroom etc. Human drivers are just not allowed to drive cross country with a pee-bottle and a cabin stockpiled with easy-to-eat meals (or some kind of Meth to keep you awake). Something the AI doesn't need. But if you instituted laws that forbade the AI from driving more then X hours without a recharge then the entire gap would disappear? Or at least that it my interpretation of the article.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @02:39PM (1 child)
Won't someone think of the Coyotes? What are those unemployed Coyotes and drug smugglers going to do now?
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday June 02 2021, @05:51PM
Automate. Somebody still has to push the "go" button.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Osamabobama on Wednesday June 02 2021, @02:50PM
I wonder how much 'safety' was added by the human who, presumably, didn't get any breaks.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Frosty Piss on Wednesday June 02 2021, @03:58PM (10 children)
Most trucks have teams and the truck itself doesn’t take a break, only driver A or B. The numbers being pimped by this company looking to be bought out by Big Auto or The Googleplex or Bozos is highly suspect.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday June 02 2021, @04:18PM (9 children)
Sorry, but "most trucks have teams" isn't accurate. I have driven team, but most of my driving was solo. You can't just grab any two drivers at random, and put them in a truck together. Unless they are a good match, they'll drive each other bonkers in short order.
Nearly half the teams on the road are husband/wife teams, who don't really care a whole lot about fast deliveries, or setting records, or whatever. They want to drive in a nice leisurely manner, and enjoy the ride. They are certainly not going to keep the truck on the road for 20+ hours a day.
The teams you describe are almost as rare as hen's teeth.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Frosty Piss on Wednesday June 02 2021, @05:14PM (7 children)
*YOU* did most of *YOUR* driving solo, so that’s the official “typical”? Yeah. Not so. Teams are by far the most common arrangement today.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @06:23PM (1 child)
Prove it.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @07:08PM
Your mom sucks my cock while I drive.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday June 02 2021, @07:24PM (2 children)
Well, citations needed to support either of our claims. And, my google-fu isn't up to the challenge. I find all manner of statistics on the trucking industry, but nothing that says how many teams vs solo drivers are on the road. So, a few points:
1. construction trucks aren't going to be team
2. logging trucks aren't going to be team
3. farm/ranch trucks aren't going to be team
4. local grocery delivery trucks are very unlikely to have a team, and if they do, that guy in the jump seat is just a helper to unload stuff
5. regional team drivers were unheard of when I drove, but I've found a few references to regional teams in my searches this afternoon. Maybe it's a thing now?
6. service trucks, like grocery delivery trucks, may have a helper along - tow trucks, electrical service, small business home repair, etc
7. I think the most important point is, you can't just grab two random drivers, and tell them that they are a team. Team drivers are full-time in-your-face and in-your-business. There is no "personal space" or anything in the cab of a truck. I've know brothers who couldn't drive together, and I've met husband & wife teams who can't share the cab of a truck for more than a couple weeks at a time. (they might make a run together, then she stays home while he makes a couple runs, etc) Being a team driver is almost as intimate as being married. And, being a team driver very literally means that you trust your co-driver with your life.
Going back to your statement, "Most trucks have teams and the truck itself doesn’t take a break, only driver A or B."
Maybe if you said "Most Over The Road trucks", you would have something. I would still challenge that, but most trucks aren't even OTR.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @07:48PM
Any truck cab with a Runaway1956 in it is not going to be team, 'cause no one could stand to be around such an asshole. No citation needed!
(Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Thursday June 03 2021, @06:13PM
“Driving” a “truck” in GTA in your mom’s basement doesn’t count.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @09:54PM (1 child)
Yeah no. Most trucks are not teams. Some are, of course, but definitely not most. Mostly husband and wife, but also sometimes there will be a rush delivery on an excavator or something and the shipper will put a team together for it.
How to tell? Go to a truck stop and look at some trucks. Watch if one guy gets out or two.
Want more evidence? Ship something cross-country by ground freight. Notice that it travels just about exactly 500 miles a day, not 1000.
If you want to know why, it's because delivery speed just isn't that important. If it needs to move faster they're going to put it on an airplane. And because a lot of truck routes are short enough that you don't need teams. And because a team doesn't help if you arrive when the receiver is closed. And because a team doesn't really go twice as fast, because a lot of trucking is waiting, so you've got two guys waiting on one load instead of two guys waiting on two loads. And because two trucks carry twice as much half as fast, which is about the same productivity, except two trucks can also split up and go different places, but a team can't. And because the driver costs five times as much as the truck, so you aren't saving that much. And because if one guy gets sick or takes a vacation you've got two guys down or you have to figure out how to get them back together again. And because you need a bigger sleeper, which actually cuts down on the kind of loads you can haul (weight and length limits).
And, of course, because the guys will kill each other.
Now one thing you do see sometimes is drivers switching off trailers. Happens a lot when you cross state lines and there are different rules, like where you have a state that doesn't allow triple trailers, there will be short haul guys that just go back and forth across the state hauling the extra trailers dropped off by the long haul trucks.
(Score: 2) by Frosty Piss on Thursday June 03 2021, @05:20AM
Most *long haul trucks that move products* are teams. It’s fairly obvious to intelligent life that we are not talking about gravel trucks, local transportation, heavy equipment. The truck in this story was shipping produce, not hauling concrete to some job site. Use your head. It does you no good to be a pedant when it makes you look like a fool.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Reziac on Thursday June 03 2021, @02:25AM
Regardless of how anyone drives, team, solo, or standing on their head, I think the real point was correct: this is an outfit looking for a nice payout when they get bought by one of the big boys... especially if they can catch the interest of bean-counters at the big trucking companies:
"Introducing TuSimple Path, a groundbreaking autonomous operations subscription service placing fleet owners in control of their own autonomous capacity. With a TuSimple Path subscription, fleet owners operate their very own autonomous trucks as part of a per-mile subscription service, providing greater capacity at a far lower cost."
"What Comes with TuSimple Path
With a TuSimple Path subscription, autonomous trucks manufactured by Navistar can access to the Autonomous Freight Network and operate on a nearly unlimited basis."
[notes lack of proofreading]
"TuSimple + Navistar
Imagine a fleet of autonomous trucks operating day and night, rain or shine capable of transporting more food and supplies to more people faster. Purpose built Level 4 self-driving trucks ensuring our supply chains remain uninterrupted no matter what the future holds."
On I-80 across Wyoming in winter. This I gotta see.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday June 02 2021, @04:08PM (4 children)
Your interpretation is spot on. Before I started driving, it was not unusual for a driver, or a team of drivers, to make a run from Yuma to the east coast in 72 hours or less. Those old trucker stories were true for the most part.
Drugs were a problem then. Lots of drivers bragged about their stashes. But, drugs were never a necessity to make those long distance runs. Let me have my coffee, and I can make those runs that scare the shit out of authoritarian rules makers. Yuma to Toronto, Yuma to Elizabeth City, Yuma to Philadelphia in 72 hours? I've done them all. Yuma to Quebec in about 80 hours. Yuma to Boston took about 85 hours.
That run in the story from Yuma to Oklahoma City? 12 or 14 hours, no sweat. Just don't saddle me with a truck governed at 55 mph, that automatically brakes if a jackrabbit runs across the road 1/4 mile ahead.
Except, government has hordes of agents out there, armed with various electronic surveillance, trying to catch people who are able and willing to do those runs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @06:05PM
> I've done them all.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il9VFC6-Inw [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday June 03 2021, @03:00AM (1 child)
What's this fixation with Yuma? :)
..to OKC is ~1150 miles, so 14hours = 80mph all the way and no stops. That's some drivin'! :) But yeah, in a comfortable vehicle and if you're the sort who likes driving and can do it in big chunks, you get there a lot sooner than townie drivers can even imagine. When I was regularly tromping back and forth between SoCal and the Northern Wastes, I'd leave Bozeman about 8pm and get to Lancaster in time for dinner the next day, in no great rush and counting a few hours at a rest stop stretched out on my F350's comfy bench seat.
But most people think 400 miles is a terribly long day behind the wheel, and can't see how for some of us... it's not. Maybe some of that being that generally, cars are more tiring to drive than pickup trucks (I can sure drive a lot more hours at a crack in my trucks than I ever could in my cars); how's it compare with a big rig?
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 03 2021, @02:02PM
Yuma is a major distribution area for produce, especially for that up from Mexico. Also, Dole grows a lot of stuff there too.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Thursday June 03 2021, @01:52PM
Sure, being able to do the run is not the issue. Being able to do it *safely enough* is.
And no, the fact that you've done such runs 100 times without problems doesn't necessarily mean you can. Not in the face of the total number of truck-miles driven every year. The difference between one expected crash per 1-million miles, and one per 100-million miles (or whatever) isn't going to show up in individual statistics until it's too late, but the first means 100x more people are likely to be killed every year.
Make the numbers big enough, and crashes become inevitable. The question becomes not *if* there's going to be a crash, but *how many* crashes there will be. Human attention and performance begins to degrade after about 4 continuous hours a day. After 8 hours in a day it begins to nose-dive.Sure, maybe you're *good*, and after 12 hours you're as safe as many drivers are after 6... but you're still a LOT more dangerous than *you* were after 6.
Worse, there's a *whole* lot of people out their that overestimate their actual abilities (What's the statistic? 80% of drivers think they're better than average? And thanks to Dunning-Kruger the remaining 20% likely contains many of those who actually *are* better) Plus people are easily tempted to keep going when they know they should probably stop because it's more profitable. And of course incentive structures have a way of making that even worse - if you're driving for a company, who's likely to get the best raises, runs, etc? The guy who drives safe, or the guy who gets the delivery done their fastest? Especially since between insurance and the driver's own liability, the company is likely to profit more from the more dangerous driver anyway.
It all adds up so that if you want the majority of drivers to drive safe, you pretty much *need* to have regulations that hobble many of them at least a little. At least until such time as someone figures out how to reliably identify those who really could handle it and treat them differently. Which is really hard, because it's not like driving down the road when everything is fine is *hard* - the real question is what happens when you're approaching the end of the third long day in a row and a deer jumps in front of the guy in front of you. Or you hit an unexpected patch of black ice in a curve. Or whatever. If you drove for long I'm sure you've had some pretty close calls that could have been a LOT worse if they had happened when you had been pushing yourself too hard.
(Score: 2) by srobert on Wednesday June 02 2021, @04:19PM
"Human drivers are just not allowed to drive cross country with a pee-bottle ..."
Unless, they work for Amazon where it's a requirement.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @06:02PM
> ... forbade the AI from driving more then X hours without a recharge ...
... forbade the AI from driving more then X hours without a garbage collection ...
ftfy.
(Score: 3, Funny) by sjames on Wednesday June 02 2021, @07:47PM
The AI kept the truck in Maximum Overdrive the whole way.
(Score: 2) by stretch611 on Thursday June 03 2021, @05:19PM
Well, the 10 hr break for human rest isn't always a necessity...
Some companies are aware of human limitations and plan for them.
I used ABF (pack it your self moving company) when I moved out of a temporary residence in Maine to back home in Georgia. They picked up my junk (personal belongings) and I left in my car immediately thereafter. I stopped overnight and then started immediately again. In the middle of the 2nd day, while I was still driving through Virginia, I got a call on my cellphone from the company... The truck with my stuff arrived at their warehouse in Georgia and they wanted to arrange for delivery. They essentially made the entire trip in the same time that I drove a little more than halfway.
This was over 10 years ago and they did not have or use self driving trucks. Humans still have the same physical limitations. The just did it smarter... They have an entire nationwide transportation network. They create hubs a few hours apart from each other. A driver starts in Maine and drives a few hours to the next hub... they stop the truck and it gets refueled and whatever else it needs. The driver takes a rest and will drive a different truck from that hub back to Maine. In the meantime, a fresh driver will drive the refueled truck to the next hub and he will rest repeating the procedure until the truck reaches its ultimate destination. People rest, and the trucks keep moving.
A self driving truck would eliminate some changeover time... but it should not significantly impact transportation on a well planned route.
Now with 5 covid vaccine shots/boosters altering my DNA :P
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by oumuamua on Wednesday June 02 2021, @02:58PM (8 children)
Hmm, not good:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-05-26/yang-s-nyc-mayoral-quest-slips-as-foes-target-inexperience [bloomberg.com]
Let me remind New Yorkers, you are not just voting for NY city here, if Yang gets knocked out so does the potential for UBI.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @09:35PM
UBI fails forever if a fringe candidate loses?
(Score: 2, Informative) by khallow on Wednesday June 02 2021, @11:57PM (6 children)
Doesn't seem to be a problem because voters don't seem [soylentnews.org] all that interested in UBI.
(Score: 2) by oumuamua on Thursday June 03 2021, @02:09PM (5 children)
In the 2020 election, Yang based his platform on UBI. Given that Trump had to be defeated, the Democrats were not going to risk going with something new; you cannot base electoral votes from 2020 as a vote against UBI. At the same time, Yang lasted longer than many other candidates, even longer than Cory Booker, all in the face of a media blackout; https://vocal.media/theSwamp/a-visual-history-of-the-yang-media-blackout [vocal.media]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 03 2021, @09:02PM
Comparing who stayed in the race longer is a horrible metric. It says as much about the candidate's desire to "build his brand" as much as anything else. Given that he's running for such a high profile office now, I would not be surprised if that factored into the desire to keep his name out there as long as he could.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday June 03 2021, @10:03PM (3 children)
Democrat voters did this, not the party. I certainly would and did consider this a vote demonstrating a relative rejection of UBI.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 04 2021, @02:12AM (2 children)
Here is how every Democratic voted in 2020:
I really like candidate X but moderate Biden has the best chance of beating Trump, better go with Biden, can’t risk 4 more years of Trump
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 04 2021, @12:00PM
Sorry, I don't buy that at all. Not least because Biden was a weak candidate to run against Trump.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 05 2021, @12:12PM
(Score: 4, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Wednesday June 02 2021, @03:25PM (27 children)
So how many people did it run over to get to its destination? So called AI (plus "tweaks" from technologically handicapped bean counters) will eventually calculate that if it does not seriously damage the vehicle or slow it down, then it should just run over it.
Do you really want to be driving on highway next to some huge truck barreling down the road with no one at the wheel? Perhaps not as much an issue if/when every car does it, but that is not today.
So it passed in pre-planned good conditions. Big deal.
How do you know what it "knows" to drive? For all you know it might get confused by some almost invisible mark on the road and drive off an overpass. What happens when it gets snagged in some complex construction zone where real thinking and reasoning is required? How do you know that the software is not of such poor quality that if it ever flips in to reverse, it accelerates infinitely until it destroys the universe. A wrong way driver will get taken off the streets, but a faulty driverless truck - reboot and sent it back out there!
Learn to hack these trucks and get free watermelons!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @03:41PM (1 child)
They need a remake of Duel (1971) with AI gone bad.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday June 03 2021, @03:03AM
With Yul Brynner's golem at the wheel.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Tork on Wednesday June 02 2021, @03:43PM (5 children)
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @06:50PM
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday June 02 2021, @08:00PM (2 children)
Coming in 2025, NASCAR AI!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 03 2021, @02:06PM (1 child)
Is that just a funny joke comment, or is there anything to that? I think there would be a lot of interest in AI stock car races. If I was part of the big boys in the AI driving business, I would be all behind this because I couldn't imagine a better platform for selling AI driving to the public than that. Of course, it runs the risk of bad PR if there are some ridiculous mishaps and might work against the PR part of it.
They should at least sponsor AI driven pace cars or something like that.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday June 03 2021, @08:02PM
I confess, it was a joke. But if they could get something like that to work...
A lot of innovations in modern automobiles come from racing. If they could come up with an AI racing series in any circuit I think it would fuel innovation in leaps and bounds. Any AI able to handle the split second decision making required in racing should be capable of handling over the road driving.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday June 03 2021, @02:50PM
The AIs can be trained to recognize what brands the other vehicles are as part of a visual IFF system. [wikipedia.org]
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday June 02 2021, @03:44PM (12 children)
You know what? As an avid cyclist, I'm scared enough when I'm on a major thoroughfare on my bike and I'm passed by trucks. Some of those drivers overtake awfully close, and while I've gotten used to it to a point, and knowing most drivers are actually competent, responsible drivers, I just don't want to share the road with their AI equivalent. I'm no luddite, but I think in that particular case, humans put me in less danger.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @03:49PM (11 children)
Depends if they trained the AI with cyclists (yes they have). You are better off with AI, it at least sees you, which may not be the case with a cellphone distracted human.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Rosco P. Coltrane on Wednesday June 02 2021, @03:57PM (10 children)
That's the thing: I'm not convinced AI would see me. There are plenty of stories of Tesla cars doing really stupid moves no human would ever attempt even if they were completely drunk, because they failed to identify something totally obvious to a human as something you can't drive through.
At this point, I'm still more comfortable sharing the road with human truck drivers, even tired truck drivers. It may change in the future of course, but I think the human truck drivers are more reliable and more professional at this point in time.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @05:11PM (1 child)
Given the past track record of how crappy "modern AI" actually is they might train with white cyclists and have "difficulty" with the black ones... ;)
Or it just turns out you're wearing the wrong patterned outfit and now you're a speed limit sign telling the truck it's OK to go faster.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @06:25PM
Good point, is it illegal to bicycle wearing a shirt with a picture of a 15MPH speed limit sign on the back?
(Score: 2) by Tork on Wednesday June 02 2021, @06:25PM (1 child)
I can't say this truck is safe for cyclists but at least some smart people somewhere are keeping an eye on that.
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @09:25PM
> He'd peddle(sic) back and forth not to move but to stay upright until the light changed.
Pedaling back and forth while balancing is called a track stand. Used by bicycle racers in certain events. Normally requires a "track bike" which is direct drive, no freewheel so pedaling backwards moves the bike backwards (there are also other methods).
The best track standing competition I ever saw was part of a bike messenger event, in Toronto. The rules went something like this: First minute--two hands on the handlebars, next minute--one hand, 3rd minute--no hands. That cut the competitors down to just a few and finally the only one left was a woman messenger who went by the call name Lambchop. After out-balancing all the guys, she proceeded to remove her jersey (shirt) and bra, all balancing, no hands, with pedal action only.
Somehow I don't think that the AI would appreciate this the same way that the crowd did.
ps. Out of respect, I don't think any photos were taken, at least I've never found one posted.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday June 02 2021, @08:23PM (1 child)
Many years ago I worked a few summers with a friend of mine as a helper for a small trucking company. We picked up containers at the piers and delivered in Manhattan for Gimbels and Sachs (are either of them still in business?), plus various drops in Jersey City, North Bergen and the like. The biggest safety problem local truck drivers face is the local passenger vehicle drivers. They think nothing of racing ahead to cut in front of a truck that is properly slowing for a traffic light and slamming on their brakes to stop, just because they didn't want to be behind the truck when the light turned green. The logic seems to be that "the truck can stop faster because it is heavier". Among a myriad of other stupid maneuvers drivers do around trucks. It is amazing that more accidents don't happen, but local truck drivers tend to be pretty good.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 05 2021, @12:26PM
You hit on the logic earlier: Behind truck? I go slow. Ahead of truck? I go fast. There's no need to attribute higher logic than that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @10:08PM
The AI might see you as a strawberry and pull over for a delicious snack.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 03 2021, @11:50AM (1 child)
I'd take AI over almost any human driver.
About a decade ago, I was cycling on a 2 lane backcountry road. No traffic except for maybe a car every 5 or 10 minutes. Here comes a gravel truck from the opposite direction. As he gets closer, he looks in his side mirrors and there is no one on the road and proceeds to swerve onto my side. He hits the gravel shoulder right behind me. I'm on a road bike. Needless to say, I don't need fucks like that on the road and I want all the collision avoidance and mandatory breaking mandated on these rigs and cameras. Also, I don't leave the house now without a forward and backward HD camera so that if shit happens, I (or at least my family) have proof.
Remember when few years ago some psycho wanted to crash a truck into Christmas Market in Berlin? What saved most there was the impact detection system that locked all the brakes after detecting the initial collision. That alone saved many lives.
All these safety features are great for all trucks and really need to be mandatory. Same for self-driving as it improves. One thing I can be sure is that an AI gravel truck would not want to murder me because some fuck had a beef with some cyclist and wanted to take revenge on me or my family.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 04 2021, @12:14PM
And then you proceed to relate a story that isn't about almost any human driver. We're not all homicidal drivers just making sure there are no witnesses.
And given the shoddy way security is treated, we would have to worry about AI cars being part of the IoT crap, followed by disgruntled employees or Russian hackers downloading code that turns said machines into murder machines.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 03 2021, @05:01PM
Add to this, my family owns two Teslas. When driving, they show a picture of nearby cars, traffic cones, speed limit signs, and other traffic-relevant things.
It's interesting, and somewhat scary, how those things will frequently just disappear from the display, or jitter around. I assume it's because the camera lost sight of them.
I also assume that their autodriving algorithms know this and compensate for it, but still, somewhat scary.
Also, it's really enlightening how much the brain compensates for senses. I'll look at the screen and think "why is everything moving so slowly," and then look up, and realize that the lines on the ground or the collection of traffic cones really are moving at that speed. It's kind of like how in reality, the moon is absolutely tiny relative to the actual size of the whole sky, but when you look at it, it looks huge.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Wednesday June 02 2021, @03:53PM (3 children)
A satellite up-link to control LHC V6.66 was considered for this model, but was rejected because it wasn't available in a color that matched the interior.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Wednesday June 02 2021, @05:11PM (2 children)
The Large Hadron Collider has to match the interior of the truck?
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Wednesday June 02 2021, @08:54PM
Well of course it does.
Can't have a tacky, mismatched interior when your going to undo the universe...
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by istartedi on Wednesday June 02 2021, @11:17PM
No. Just the satellite up-link unit in the truck. Don't be ridiculous.
Appended to the end of comments you post. Max: 120 chars.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @06:46PM
Have you seen the meth heads that pass for over the road drivers these days? Somehow I feel a lot less comforted by your statement than you do.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Wednesday June 02 2021, @07:00PM
Hey, if you could hack the trucks, you could even escape incarceration [fandom.com].
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @07:21PM
Looks like the Navitron Autodrive system has come public knowledge.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 02 2021, @08:09PM
They're gonna do what you said can't be done.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Wednesday June 02 2021, @08:18PM (4 children)
I could see this being allowed for interstates, with depots where the AI driven trucks pull off and wait for a human driver to take over for local driving. Or probably more likely, they just drop their loads, until an assigned local driver arrives to pick up the load and finish the delivery.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Thursday June 03 2021, @03:08AM
I-5 through central California... that I want to see.
From a safe distance.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by ledow on Thursday June 03 2021, @01:35PM (2 children)
Sounds like a train to me.
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday June 03 2021, @08:08PM
In essence, it would work approximately the same way, only I would think they could make it far more customizable to accommodate small shipments to more out of the way places. I would expect a lot of innovation in shipping to arise from something like this, as soon as it is worked out how best to exploit (in a good way) this.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 05 2021, @12:23PM