Driverless Truck hit the road!
Driverless car, Driverless Bus..,
Now it is time for driverless truck!
Even though the truck carried a professional driver, he simply monitored the progress from the truck’s sleeping cabin behind the driver seat along with the supervision of Colorado police on its landmark journey through the state.
This automated truck is equipped with an array of camera, Lidar sensors on top of the cab to read the road ahead with the data fed back to a computer to analyze the data and make adjustments to speed and steering. It’s also using GPS and hyper-accurate digital maps created on a scouting run to guide the way.
Well, here are the advantages of driverless truck.
1. Law and regulation for truck’s driver
Drivers are strict by law from driving more than x hours without taking a x hours break (hours of driving and break depend on each country). The automated truck can drive nearly 24 hours per day meaning that the company can double its transportation capacity.
2. Lower price
Transportation is one of the main cost of all the goods we buy. The driverless truck can help lower the cost of the product resulting into the lower prices and the higher standard of living.
3. Lower road accident rate
Once the driverless truck is stable enough to be on the road, road users can enjoy substantial safety benefits. In Thailand, I believe in other countries too, truck drivers are paid by the distance; the faster you drive, the more miles you achieve, the higher you get paid. This may lead to road accidents. With the automated truck that speed is controlled and with the sensor technology that can detect blind spot, the road accidents are less likely to happen.
But don’t forget that every coin has two sides.
If the self-driving truck is commercially rolled out, these could be adverse effects that you cannot ignore.
1. Job loss
If you use AI instead of human, it is for sure that lots of people will lose their job. These people are mostly unskilled labor, losing their job might result into social problems or even higher crime rate.
2. Effect on gas station, highway business and budget hotel
These businesses gain their profit from drivers. Less number of drivers on the road means less profit and sometimes it means that they need to close down their business.
The benefits from adopting driverless truck cannot be put aside since it can help double performance, however, its disadvantages cannot be ignored as well.
