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My uncle swears AI won't touch his trucking job, but he's been on the same route for 14 years
My uncle has been driving a semi out of Columbus for 14 years and he keeps telling me not to worry about self driving trucks because they can't handle real roads. Last month his company started testing a driver assist system on the Ohio turnpike and he got a text saying his route was one of the first ones being mapped with new sensors. He still thinks it's nothing but I watched him get quiet at dinner when my cousin mentioned the trucking company posted a job for a remote monitoring operator. I don't know if his job is gone tomorrow but the writing feels like it's on the wall for the long haul stuff. Has anyone else watched a family member brush off automation stuff right in front of them?
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rowanhernandez11d ago
The "writing feels like it's on the wall" part is where I'd pump the brakes, because mapping a route with sensors and running a full self driving semi are two very different things. Highways are actually the easy part, it's the docks, the weather, the construction zones, and the guy in a Civic cutting you off that keep a human in the seat, and companies have been promising this for a decade without a single driverless long haul route running at scale. A remote monitoring job posting sounds scary but it could just as easily mean they're watching the assist system, not replacing your uncle.
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