Uber's self-driving trucks have started hauling freight

[workinclasszero]

Uber’s self-driving trucks have started hauling freight
Uber autonomous trucks are hauling loads across Arizona—with a safety driver.
TIMOTHY B. LEE - 3/7/2018, 10:12 AM

Uber's fleet of self-driving trucks has begun hauling commercial loads, the company announced on Tuesday. The trucks will operate first in Arizona, a state with famously permissive laws for self-driving technology.

The trucks won't be fully driverless—they'll still have human safety drivers behind the wheel. Still, the announcement represents an important step toward the use of fully autonomous trucks in the trucking business.

Uber's driverless trucks will operate as part of Uber Freight, a freight-hauling app and network that Uber launched last year. Just as the regular Uber app lets passengers book a ride with a few clicks, Uber Freight is an app that connects shippers with truckers who can haul their loads.

And Uber is planning to organize its trucking network differently than a lot of conventional trucking companies. Instead of having a single driver hauling a load from start to finish, Uber plans to have human drivers handle relatively short legs at the beginning and end of the journey, while driverless trucks handle the long-haul route in between.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2018/03/ubers-self-driving-trucks-have-started-hauling-freight/

[gratuitous]

1. Except for the first and last miles . . .

And, oh yeah, the "safety driver" who has to sit there monitoring the "self-driving" truck the entire time. In Arizona, where it's unlikely to encounter such outré phenomena like rain or snow.

Where's the crayon for "unimpressed"? I need to do some coloring.

[USALiberal]

4. LOL.....

Why are people so defensive of this? Let me be clear, self driving cars/trucks will happen, no doubt about it.

People were MAD about horseless carriages also.

Old school pilots said autopilot would never work, they were wrong!

People said man would never fly, they were wrong.

Get it? Sure, snow and weather will be a challange but smart people will solve it.

[gratuitous]

7. Let me know when it happens

"Soon." "Someday." "Within five years." Because the promises are piling up, but the reality isn't happening. I'd like to think there are better public works programs we could be investing in than making sure that Uber's vaporware is funded.

I don't know why self-driving car and truck enthusiasts are so hostile to well-founded skepticism.

[USALiberal]

12. 10 years! No doubt! 1000s saved!

[Ferrets are Cool]

9. Why? You're kidding right?

Absolutely NOTHING could go wrong, right? I can think of 100 reasons NOT to want them on the road. One of them being that human life, PGIC notwithstanding, is precious.

[USALiberal]

13. 30,000 die a year now, most because of driver errors. Nt

[Ferrets are Cool]

22. I'm not going to change your mind, but...

I don't want to be on the interstate with a teen driving a car while texting....drifting into the lane of the TRUCK with NO driver and ...................then what? The truck is going to evade what? Have you not seen I, Robot?

[LanternWaste]

6. I feigned an arrogant dismissal of 80286 processor back in 1989 for its limitations as well.

I feigned an arrogant dismissal of 80286 processor back in the late 80s for its limitations as well.

Turned out, technology advances, and it was me that needed to catch up rather than play with crayons.

[gratuitous]

8. I'll let Atrios at Eschaton take this

"Anyway, this is the point I keep trying to make. To the extent that the technology works it'll be more neat than useful or efficiency enhancing (cost reducing). Might be a bit! Just not that much. You still have a 'safety driver' and an additional coordination issue with the transfer hubs (transfer hubs already exist but not for precisely this purpose generally)."

http://www.eschatonblog.com/2018/03/plus-driver.html

[USALiberal]

14. +1000! Nt

[haele]

17. Try the GPS glitches in Arizona...

Even along the major highways. Just last year we put the address to a hotel "rest stop" near Mesa on our trip to Albuquerque to visit my mom (we had kids with us, so the trip would not be a one-day trip) and the GPS sent us to an I-10 off-ramp to the other side of the freeway from the hotel on a road that eventually turned into a dirt road in the middle of the desert seven or eight miles out. The lady at the reception desk told us it happens to everyone using a GPS.
For some reason, that hotel is identified as being 180 out from the address on the web site in all the GPS directories - including Garmin, TomTom, Bing, Apple, and Google's directories. One would think at least one of those map directories would use the address from the web site (as in, "Old Spur Road South" vice "Old Spur Road North&quot

There are places in Nevada has the same issue.

Your "self-driving truck" that might be delivering to somewhere a bit in the boonies may end up totally lost and unable to return. A driver can at least stop and ask directions or figure out how to turn around and follow his way back out on his own.

Haele

[Initech]

2. Drivers no longer needed. "Human saftey expendables" will replce them.

[grantcart]

3. While I appreciate and share your sentiment and don't want to lose the jobs, long range truck routes

represent a more dangerous job than law enforcement.

Crashes like this one (near my home) will be eliminated with driverless systems which will be common place, at least in the country, in a decade.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/04/jorge-espinoza-killed-cop_n_4212183.html

One other factor is driverless trucks can operate more effectively on the graveyard shift and make it possible to move most truck traffic out of the day light hours making highways safer and reducing congestion around cities.

[USALiberal]

5. So true! People hated cars initially also. 1000s will not die because of this technology!

[A HERETIC I AM]

10. "Crashes like this one (near my home) will be eliminated with driverless systems"

Really?

OK...crashes exactly like that one...maybe. But there are too many variables to suggest that driverless truck technology will be able to eliminate crashes altogether.

40 years ago this year I drove my first tractor trailer. The most significant improvements over that time have been in fuel efficiency, where back then if your OTR tractor was getting 5 MPG, you were doing great. These days 9 or better is common.

But what hasn't changed? Brakes. With slight improvements in anti-lock and anti-skid systems, trucks are slowed and stopped the same way they have been since the advent of air brake systems and engine retarders. That will change somewhat with electric trucks as they will be able to more effectively use regenerative braking, but even though regenerative braking is already available in some automobiles, it has yet to see it's way into the diesel powered truck market to any large degree.

The way a construction zone is laid out hasn't changed much either. There is ZERO standardization from state to state, much less from contractor to contractor. The quality of the roads in general. While some states seem to do a better job than others, bumps, potholes and the like can literally appear overnight.

The first time one of these units plows into a night time paving crew working within inches of the line of cones or barrels, there will be an outcry. When a "driverless" truck, regardless if there is a human onboard or not, takes out a bunch of pedestrians while trying to avoid a school bus.......

One other factor is driverless trucks can operate more effectively on the graveyard shift and make it possible to move most truck traffic out of the day light hours making highways safer and reducing congestion around cities.

How do you figure? You used the term "effectively". I'm starting a trip tonight at 11:00 PM. With proper rest, I'll be fine. How is what I will do for 8 hours starting near midnight any less effective than an automated system?

Also, with a few notable exceptions, most companies that receive truck freight do so during normal business hours.

Are they coming? Sure. But as a professional driver of over 27 years OTR experience I see entirely too many hurdles to overcome before they are reliably safe enough to put 4 million drivers out of work.

[USALiberal]

16. Bullshit.....

Planes became popular even though they “crashed into the ground killing 100s” quite a bit early on.
Now, safer that driving!!!
There will be deaths, but today 30,000 die yearly! Automation will save more lifes.

[grantcart]

19. Just think of being able to eliminate DUI deaths and charges for personal transportation.

Its too bad but will have real benefits.

[A HERETIC I AM]

20. LOL

Last edited Wed Mar 7, 2018, 09:10 PM - Edit history (1)

Did I say it wasn't going to happen?

And why did you put that portion of your first sentence in quotes? Did I say that? No...So bullshit right backatya, pal.

I take it you're a truck driver with nearly 2 million miles without an accident in all the lower 48 in all terrain and weather conditions, so you can speak with a modicum of expertise on this subject?

The point I am trying to make, Mr. Bullshit, is there is a long way yet to go before these vehicles take over the industry.

There will be deaths, but today 30,000 die yearly! Automation will save more lifes.

First off, "Lives", not "lifes".

Secondly, your figure of 30,000 is not the number of people killed in heavy truck related accidents, not to mention it isn't accurate as to the overall total, so unless you are advocating for the elimination of ALL self driven vehicles, your argument is about as valid as your unwarranted and rude assertion that what I said in my post above was "bullshit". The total for 2016 was 37,461 which is the highest since 2008. Is it too high? Of course, but it seems as if you are asserting the 30,000 figure relates to deaths in crashes involving trucks. Which is bullshit.

In 2016, the last year for which the NHTSA has data published, 4317 people were killed in crashes involving large trucks, 722 of those were occupants of the trucks. In 2016 large trucks accounted for 8% of ALL VEHICLES INVOLVED IN FATAL CRASHES, so you are much more likely to be killed by a fellow automobile driver than you are in an accident with a large tractor trailer.

https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812497

It is also a fact that a significantly large percentage of accidents involving tractor trailers and automobiles are attributable to the driver of the automobile doing something stupid.

I drive an average of 400 miles every single day. Yesterday I did 600. Tonight I will do about 320. I've been keeping this average for at least the last 5 years, and overall for the entire time I have driven OTR, I've averaged 194 miles every single day for 27 years.

There are MASSIVE problems in the trucking industry, from a severe driver shortage (70,000 unfilled positions according to one article I read) which causes existing drivers to have to work more than they would normally, the industry's insistence on pay-per-mile which incentivizes drivers to run more than they should, a shortage of truck parking spaces which forces drivers to drive further to find a place to stop and rest or sleep, to a rate of pay that has not seen an increase in over 30 years, to a serious flaw in the overall driver education system in this country. Regarding pay, even when adjusted for inflation, the driver fleet in this country has actually gone backwards in pay from the days when I first started.

I've seen both automobile drivers and truck drivers do amazingly stupid things on the highway. But I am just trying to make the point that driverless technology has quite a ways to go before it is able to take over the trucking industry.

[grantcart]

18. There are already objective studies showing that driverless trucks will be safer

other points

1) Construction zones
Any area that is non conforming because of construction can simply have drivers available at the beginning and end of the area

2) Singapore and many other cities in Asia significantly reduced traffic jams by not allowing truck deliveries during peak traffic. You could reduce traffic jams on the LA freeways by prohibiting large trucks on the freeways during normal hours. When I mean significantly reduce traffic jams I mean that it reduced the average driving time for millions by half an hour or more.

Requiring companies to arrange large truck deliveries during off hours is standard practice in many cities outside of the US. These changes were welcomed by the drivers because it meant that they spent less time stuck in traffic and made more money. Most large supermarkets restock shelves after 10 pm and have people to unload.

In any case you wouldn't even have to to change the delivery time but simply have driverless trucks go cross country and arrive at terminals outside of the cities where they would pick up "pilot" drivers to complete the last leg.

3) I don't particularly like it but if you think that they aren't going to have driverless cars and trucks to do much of the commercial and passenger related traffic in 20 years then you are deceiving yourself.

[A HERETIC I AM]

21. Jesus Hornblower Christ!.....Did I say they weren't coming?

3) I don't particularly like it but if you think that they aren't going to have driverless cars and trucks to do much of the commercial and passenger related traffic in 20 years then you are deceiving yourself.

Come on, man. It's right there in plain text!

Are they coming? Sure. But as a professional driver of over 27 years OTR experience I see entirely too many hurdles to overcome before they are reliably safe enough to put 4 million drivers out of work.

I KNOW THESE VEHICLES ARE COMING, OK? God damn. It's like I typed that in French or something.

Regarding your point #1, you can't be serious. Are you suggesting the truck stop, a driver get in, drive the few miles of the zone, then get out? Sorry, but that is absurd and would be a logistical nightmare.


I am going to leave this to the folks such as yourself who are clearly more experienced in the trucking industry than I am and have an answer to every single real world issue I might point out.
You win.
Have a great day.

I'm out of this conversation.

[ecstatic]

24. You raise a great point about brakes and potential issues with the actual truck

An experienced human driver can tell when something is off and about to go wrong. I know computers are pretty good at monitoring tire pressure, etc., oil, gas, etc., but the computer monitoring system can easily go haywire due to a mistake made during maintenance. For example, one time they made a mistake that caused my backup camera to come on randomly along with several other weird bugs. If my car was driverless and using the camera to make decisions, would it know it had this issue? And if so, then what? Pull over and self-repair? Hmm... Also, I'm not averse to new technology, but at some point, you're going to need people to buy the products you're selling.. and that will be hard if everyone is unemployed. Hopefully these companies will at least consider employing virtual drivers who'll "drive" the truck from a remote location (like in Black Panther?).

[lpbk2713]

11. How long before they start carrying gasoline?

That should be interesting.

[Vinca]

15. So after all the truck drivers are put out of work, what will Dear Leader do?

Steel mills can be mostly automated, but somehow the tariffs are going to create a gazillion new jobs for people who apparently are too uninspired to learn to do anything else. At least that's what Trump wants the sheeple to believe.

[ecstatic]

23. Not sure I want to be on the road alongside a driverless truck. I'm glad there's still some human

involvement, although, the "safety drivers" might have a false sense of security and sleep/text most of the time.