[RE]

Speaking of disappearing types of work, long haul truckers now have competition from robot trucks that dispense with the driver, at least in Texas for now.  How will this be received by the meat packages currently sharing the road with the robotrucks?

As long as the weather conditions are good and the truck has no mechanical problems, thesse things should work pretty well,  Highway driving between production facilities and distribution centers is generally pretty predictable and easy.  However, what happens if there is a problem like a road closure and the cops need to reroute the traffic.  How do they tell the truck it needs to get off the highway and take an alternate route?  If a tire has a blowout, does the truck change the tire itself?  Can it call a tow service nearby?  Who pumps the diesel to fill the tanks if the route is longer than a tankful?


Will there be unhappy Luddite truckers who sabotage the robotrucks?

On dedicated routes these things should more or less work.  For the meat and potatoes of LTL trucking, fuhgettabouddit.  Too many variables.

https://newatlas.com/automotive/aurora-driverless-trucks-texas/

Driverless freight trucks begin barreling through Texas

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[TDoS]

Will there be unhappy Luddite truckers who sabotage the robotrucks?

RE

I wonder how well they react to being brake checked by cagers shooting for the gap between the truck and another car in front of the truck? You know they've got to leave a reasonable gap, humans might tail gate but a computer is going to value that gap for "just in case" issues.

[K-Dog]

Driverless freight trucks begin barreling through Texas

"Riding in the back seat for our inaugural trip was an honor of a lifetime --- from the article.  <== A kiss-ass dumfuck thing to say for sure.

The individual who said that is likely beyond hope.  May he feel what unemployment is like soon.  I mean that, ignorance results in pain.  Capitalists try to reduce labor costs (variable capital) by automating.  Self driving cars are just another form of automation that results in the rate of profit falling.

A) Automation replaces workers, reducing variable capital (wages)
B) But it requires increased investment in constant capital (machines, technology)
C) Since the rate of profit depends on variable capital increasing constant capital while decreasing variable capital causes the rate of profit to fall.

Ignorance causes the pain and suffering of innocents and much ignorance results in much suffering.  Here is the key thing which is beyond the processing power of an average individual. 

A company automates, and the company is able to make more money (in the short term) because automation lowers prices in a market where prices are determined by variable capital.  Competition can't lower prices yet.  But they will.  Prices will fall when competition is also able to automate.  Competition sets a lower price to recover their lost business.

The first company who automates then has to lower prices to keep up sales, and their profit is then right back where it started from before automation minus the cost of the hardware, software, and labor it takes to implement the automation.

Technology creates temporary advantages that are eroded by competition over time.  Tech gives temporary advantages with the cost of permanent change.

[RE]

I wonder how much the automation raises the price of each truck?  Plus the cost of computers back at the fleet HQ which control all the trucks?  How many years of operation does it need to break even on the capital outlay?  How much do they have to pay an IT dept with specialists who can troubleshoot the network and truck computers?  How much to train mechanics to maintain these trucks, and how much do you need to pay them?

You would need a really big fleet to hope to break even on this.  You would need to significantly increase profits, which would make it tough to lower your prices to undercut your competitors.  The gain has to come mainly from efficiency moving more freight faster.

The capitalist wet dream is a biz with no labor cost at all, zero employees.  The factory that runs itself.  Those wage slaves are such a pain in the ass all the time!  Always asking for time off for vacations and sick leave.  The nerve!

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[K-Dog]

At work today the truck was an hour and a half late.  Driving around the building through the parking lot taxes the ability of a good driver.  A couple weeks ago a driver hit one of the bright yellow pipes stuck in the pavement that is filled up with concrete.  You all know what I am talking about.  Now the pipe is not plumb.

The pavement approaching the building is at a slight incline to drain rain.  When it comes time to close the truck doors the truck has to move away from the building enough so the box is not skewed by gravity.  Otherwise the door latches won't engage because they miss lining up by an inch.

If an aggressive bean counter wants to switch in AI to collect some personal power, concern for such things will fall by the wayside.  When problems present, someone else will be blamed.