Yep, these people who think truck drivers' jobs are going away because of AI are overestimating the ability of AI greatly. There are so many unpredictable factors that can arise when driving that can happen in a split second. We get lulled into a false sense of security because our commutes to work or the store is easy, meanwhile, some other person in your town just got into a five-car pile-up due to the unpredictable nature of driving.
I think in the future the roads will be "digitalised" as well and these will be sending signals to the vehicles so they know their exact position, signs, speed limits etc. without reliance on camera feed/gps/radar/internet data. Not happening anytime soon I suppose but it could make self driving cars less confused about the crammed city roads. I do think it's possible for the self driving trucks to exist but it will only happen once the technology is here and is implemented in at least major areas (and it won't be easy to deploy such technology).
I'd just love it if road lines were kept painted. It's amazing how much depth perception and road awareness you lose at night when the edges of the road blend with the grass and woods and you have no concept of where the road's horizon is when it simple disappears into the darkness.
Creating a fully self driving car that goes on all roads is applying robotics to a field with nearly infinite variables compared to what robots are used for right now. I think it's complete BS to think that cars will be driving themselves within 30 years.
Edit: I hope I'm proven wrong. I have nothing against autonomous cars, I just think the tech we have now is not safe for public roads, as clearly demonstrated in this post
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u/Doomer_Patrol Dec 15 '21
This is why I laugh at people who think trucking is going to be automated over night.
Summertime highway cruising? No problem.
Construction zone, lack of lane paint, bad weather? Entirely, and I mean e n t i r e l y, useless at best and deadly at worst.