www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/37103159
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No, next!
Yeah, it is. Quickly followed by Bus Drivers, Train Drivers, the driver of the Woolwich Ferry.
Basically if your job title contains the word driver, plan on getting very good at Sudoku and watching a lot of Jeremy Kyle in the future. As an added bonus you will get to be labelled a feckless scrounger by the Daily Maily as well.
Much like banks trying to force a cashless society on us, the driverless car has many pitfalls and grey areas that need ironed out before they decide to push ahead but they all want to be the first to get them on the roads so are sending them out there with no real thought to the bigger picture.
Its not going to end well
This is what I was worried about TBH. I do remember though that they put drivers ON the docklands light railway as members of public complained they would prefer a driver on the train as they felt reassured that the train was not being “driven” by a computer.
I reckon blue chip companies would be initially interested but I reckon driverless tricks would be bad for their corporate image and image is everything to these companies. Members of public complaining about a machine driving a truck down the local high street. Also how many times is an RDC actually where it’s plotting. What does the computer software do then?
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“No - But it’s the end of the beginning. The battle for France is over. The battle of Britain has just begun”. 
Most cars seem to move without any input from the driver so no this is not the beginning of the end, just an extension of more of the same.
so when the driverless/autonomous radar+ sat guided convoy/troop of half a dozen 44tonners goes haywire as the autopilot tesla in front has had a software malfunction/battery failure. who’d pick up the bill for the resulting carnage.
and will an autonomous truck be able to actually park itself up at the RDC , hand in its paperwork ,open the rear doors , reverse on a bay, hand its keys in , turn itself off , then wake itself up after 3 or 4 hours find somewhere to park while it awaits reload instructions .
well if one turns up here it better be able to drop its own ramps and load its own dumpers and backhoes , oh and secure them.
So how are they going to find a unsigned farm entrance or a small unit on an idustrial eastate. How will they no which ia bay 132 at a rdc. Whos going to open doors before going on a bay or tail lift a pallet with a bathroom suite of at mrs jones house. Or which gap in the cones on a motorway to tip a load of tarmac.
They will never take over the job of a hgv driver.
Still way more questions than answers as above. We as drivers are constantly making decisions throughout the day, be that down to customer requests, order problems, road situations, closures, accidents etc etc, I don’t see how these vehicles could potentially do that even in 20 years time but you never know.
Edmund Cartwright’s power loom ended the life style of skilled weavers. In the 1790’s, weavers were well paid. Within 30 years many had become labourers in factories as their skill had now been taken over by machines. In 1813, there were only 2,400 power looms in Britain. by 1850, there were 250,000.
And so progress continues…
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What amazes me is that they are investing heaven only knows how much into automating an incredibly complex task. Think of all the millions of little corrections and route decisions and judgements that a lorry driver has to make everyday.
Now think about how much easier it would be to bring out a robot accountant with a super fast fibre link to HMRC. Surely accountancy is the implementation of formulaic rules. I realise that accountants are paid to be creative in some cases. That’s neither here nor there, governments should work out how much tax revenue is paid to them. Therefore the government could set the parameters and remove the scope for “creativity”. Consider how much accountants earn compared to lorry drivers.
Why wouldn’t companies like Apple & Google, solid beneficiaries of operating in the International community and who like to tell us how they abide by the tax regimes of all of the territories they operate in. Who are also investing massively in autonomous vehicles, not taking the low hanging taxation fruit first? It makes no sense, think of the massive accountancy department wage bills these corporations could save. They would also be abiding by the taxation rules of all of the territories they operate in as well. It makes no sense.
tonyj105:
so when the driverless/autonomous radar+ sat guided convoy/troop of half a dozen 44tonners goes haywire as the autopilot tesla in front has had a software malfunction/battery failure. who’d pick up the bill for the resulting carnage.
and will an autonomous truck be able to actually park itself up at the RDC , hand in its paperwork ,open the rear doors , reverse on a bay, hand its keys in , turn itself off , then wake itself up after 3 or 4 hours find somewhere to park while it awaits reload instructions .
well if one turns up here it better be able to drop its own ramps and load its own dumpers and backhoes , oh and secure them.
aeroplanes go haywire and cause huge loss of life and devastation. it doesn’t stop the flying industry does it ? wouldn’t you think just 1 plane crash would be enough to put the industry out of business ? for some reason we all accept planes will crash and we live with it so i guess the powers that be will be thinking the same thing it doesnt matter if trucks crash being driver less people will just accept it like they do when planes end up in trouble. they say flying is the most safest forms of transport there is yet it means nothing to anyone who is suddenly going to end up in a crash
desypete:
tonyj105:
so when the driverless/autonomous radar+ sat guided convoy/troop of half a dozen 44tonners goes haywire as the autopilot tesla in front has had a software malfunction/battery failure. who’d pick up the bill for the resulting carnage.
and will an autonomous truck be able to actually park itself up at the RDC , hand in its paperwork ,open the rear doors , reverse on a bay, hand its keys in , turn itself off , then wake itself up after 3 or 4 hours find somewhere to park while it awaits reload instructions .
well if one turns up here it better be able to drop its own ramps and load its own dumpers and backhoes , oh and secure them.aeroplanes go haywire and cause huge loss of life and devastation. it doesn’t stop the flying industry does it ? wouldn’t you think just 1 plane crash would be enough to put the industry out of business ? for some reason we all accept planes will crash and we live with it so i guess the powers that be will be thinking the same thing it doesnt matter if trucks crash being driver less people will just accept it like they do when planes end up in trouble. they say flying is the most safest forms of transport there is yet it means nothing to anyone who is suddenly going to end up in a crash
They’re going to sell this on the back of safety. Supported by a million You Tube Dashcam videos.
What makes you think that computers aren’t taking over the accountancy function? That was the first department to get computers back in the 80s and the vast armies of clerks that used to process bits of paper are long gone. What remains are the decision making functions at the top, and a small number of skilled clerks who spend most of their time resolving other people’s problems (faulty paperwork, incorrect deductions, missing credits) at the bottom. My daughter is one such for a large company in the South of England. The only invoices she sees are the problem ones and her skill lies in being able to resolve them with minimum interference with the day-to-day operation, and relies as much on her network of relationships with her opposite numbers in the supplier network, than her accountancy skills.
The objective is to put computer controlled trucks where they can replace people on dull, repetitive, routine work; they won’t be delivering to farms or high street shops for a very long time. Shunting will be the vanguard as it happens on private land. This will be followed by inter-depot trunking, because that is as straightforward as it gets. Maybe pallet networks will be up front because their trunkers are either sitting around a lot, or are pushing their hours. Curtains can easily be opened by minimum wage staff at the hub.
The whole business of paperwork is a throwback to horse and cart days - the guy who delivers your Amazon parcel doesn’t have a sheaf of delivery notes. Why is it still like that with HGVs?
Since the big splurge in the media back in March about trialling driverless lorries on the M6 this Autumn I can’t find any updates on what is happening / planned. May be it was Osbourne’s baby and may be May isn’t keen 
?
I still think by 2025 we will have driverless lorries trunking between specially built RDCs on the outskirts of major cities and all linked by motorways. But I doubt it is the beginning of the end for driving lorries, the job is too varied and complex, I could imagine stuff like the driver taking the truck to the motorway then resting as the motor drives itself to some other point on the motorway hundreds of miles away then taking charge for the final part of the journey, technology is advancing at a pace and things will be changing big time.
Bluey Circles:
Since the big splurge in the media back in March about trialling driverless lorries on the M6 this Autumn I can’t find any updates on what is happening / planned. May be it was Osbourne’s baby and may be May isn’t keenI still think by 2025 we will have driverless lorries trunking between specially built RDCs on the outskirts of major cities and all linked by motorways. But I doubt it is the beginning of the end for driving lorries, the job is too varied and complex, I could imagine stuff like the driver taking the truck to the motorway then resting as the motor drives itself to some other point on the motorway hundreds of miles away then taking charge for the final part of the journey, technology is advancing at a pace and things will be changing big time.
To be honest that’s about as far as I think it will go, and they seem keen on “Platooning” as well (I think that’s the term). I can’t see them allowing a lorry with no one there at all. Well not for a while anyway.
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The crash-scamming idiots making a living out of insurance companies must be licking their lips over the opportunity to Carry On As Normal. They still have steering wheels! Little nudge and wey-hey!
Although I did note that would all eventually resemble the taxi Arnie used when he was trying to get his memory back…
desypete:
we all accept planes will crash and we live with it
Maybe, but usually just the once…