Does This Recent Headline Threaten Trucker Jobs?
Though it’s been one of the hottest tech stories over the past few recent years, one recent headline in particular is making autonomous-driving technology much more of a reality than it’s ever been.
The TuSimple company’s self-driving semi-truck just completed a 951 mile route, delivering watermelons, from Arizona to Oklahoma in just 14 hours and 6 minutes--a route which would usually take around 24 hours with a human driver.
To anyone reading this, it sounds like it spells disaster for the future of professional truck drivers going forward. After all, who doesn’t want their watermelon a full 10 hours fresher? Why not cut out the risk of human fatigue, substance usage, and sleep-deprived driving? Isn’t everything going to be automated soon anyway?
Let’s pump the brakes!
First of all, we can clear our heads of the image of an R2-D2 robot sitting behind the wheel, since the human touch is still needed for those first and last miles that aren’t on the highway. Second, someone will be needed to oversee the loading and unloading of the actual freight, and it will most likely be someone( with a pair of hands and legs. Furthermore, someone will be needed to oversee and/or fix any technical issues that may arise and be able to take the wheel if necessary.
That being said, the role of the human driver may eventually be that of a well-rested supervisor who only has to take the wheel for a fraction of the drive time.
Is it the end of the career trucker as we know it? Probably not, but the role of said trucker might be quite different if cloud technology finally hits the highways and autonomously-driven semis hit the road en masse...
