Self-driving tractor-trailers...

[LVSteve]

Trains are good idea unless you live near the railroad tracks where they unload, like me. There are trains constantly on it that stop then have to back up and unload at the Ben E Keith docs or the Purina plant and make you wait the whole time. If they could make all trains underground or on overhead bridges and not disturb traffic I would be OK with the idea but most Americans love their cars as the main form of local transportation.

The roads are the easiest things to put in tunnels or on bridges. The railroads are where they are because that's how they work, same as rivers.

 

[BC38]

Bald1, you were a Feeder Driver, weren't you?

I thought the same thing reading his post. Since you came to that conclusion, I'm thinking you were probably a feeder driver yourself...

FWIW, the most successful unionized parcel delivery company in the world uses the railroad network to move entire trailer-loads of packages anytime point A and point B are more than ~400-500 miles (an 8-hour day of driving) apart.

Just sayin....

 

[cmj8591]

I know I'm not ready to let AI perform surgery on me!

It already is and has been for a long time. Most of the orthopedic surgery, at least where I live, is done using a robot. The doctor is guiding it but the parameters are set by computer. Most prostrate surgery is done by computer guided robots. They have been working this way around here for a long time and it's working quite well. It is so efficient that something like knee replacement surgery has become day surgery for most people.

 

[johngalt]

It already is and has been for a long time. Most of the orthopedic surgery, at least where I live, is done using a robot. The doctor is guiding it but the parameters are set by computer. Most prostrate surgery is done by computer guided robots. They have been working this way around here for a long time and it's working quite well. It is so efficient that something like knee replacement surgery has become day surgery for most people.

Yes, but it still done under a surgeon's supervision.

 

[steelslaver]

I had LASIK in 2019, while the eye surgeon cut and folded the flap, a computer controlled the laser that burned the actual tissue off my eye, then the surgeon folded the flap back.

Some of the best money I ever spent

 

[YeshuaIsa53]

Next, they will put smaller engines in them for less pollution. We used to load 40,000# to 46,000#. People will jack the truck for the driver going so slow.

 

[cmj8591]

Yes, but it still done under a surgeon's supervision.

For sure. I think you will see those unmanned tractor trailers whizzing by on the freeway before you see unassisted robotic surgery.

 

[SMSgt]

As long as they aren't made by BOEING.....

Don't fall for the media hype.

 

[CH4]

I'd like to see how it would back into a dock at crowded distribution center or truck stop. If/when it hits something, does it stop and swap insurance info?

 

[kamloops67]

I wonder if a computer controlled semi will still cut off passing cars 300 yards from the end of the passing lane ?

 

[dmn57]

I think this concept is inevitable, but I doubt I'll live long enough to see it in widespread use.

 

[LVSteve]

I wonder if a computer controlled semi will still cut off passing cars 300 yards from the end of the passing lane ?

You know why they do that, right? Too many car and SUV drivers crawl past trucks with the cruise engaged in those special passing lanes. Usually they create a convoy of other drivers that ends up alongside the truck as the passing lane ends, all of them expecting/demanding that the truck slow down and let them in. Nope, driving a big truck is all about maintaining momentum, so the truckers will often move over to avoid the dimbulbs creating the situation.

 

[kamloops67]

You know why they do that, right? Too many car and SUV drivers crawl past trucks with the cruise engaged in those special passing lanes. Usually they create a convoy of other drivers that ends up alongside the truck as the passing lane ends, all of them expecting/demanding that the truck slow down and let them in. Nope, driving a big truck is all about maintaining momentum, so the truckers will often move over to avoid the dimbulbs creating the situation.

Sometimes yes ,but often as not it's just pure cussedness.

 

[LVSteve]

Sometimes yes ,but often as not it's just pure cussedness.

Take it from me, in most of the desert SW, what I described is not a "sometimes" event. Had I been running a dashcam on my run to Texas and back at Christmas, I could have made a feature length movie on "How not to pass 18-wheelers" when I got home.