The Death of Truck Driving

[Avocado]

https://www.google.com/amp/www.cnbc...t-jobs-in-select-us-states.html?client=safari

Self-driving cars and trucks will kill millions of jobs

 

[Magic Poriferan]

Eh-yup.

I wonder how long it takes for everyone to get the picture. Technology is going to kill tons of jobs in a great multitude of sectors. As AI develops, even a lot of white-collar jobs are going to become obsolete. Now here's the twist

That should be and could be a good thing.

This is the whole point, after all. Throughout history, increasing production efficiency is one of the few kinds of ways technology has generally helped us. This increases in production efficiency have lead to more leisure, more safety, and in turn lead to larger amounts of investment in creative endeavors by the population. It has both increased the quality of life directly and has also made the way for the further advancement of civilization (thus indirectly increasing quality of life).

This time around should be no different. But what unfortunately happens is that we tend to build social institutions around the technology we have. Duh, that's kind of hard to avoid. But they can get very elaborate, and when some knew game changing technology comes along, it breaks the institution. To the extent that a society is unable to adapt and setup new institutions around the new reality that technology has brought, negative consequences are suffered.

I think of automation as a good thing. Something that has enormous potential to do good that can be and almost assuredly will be unlocked (unless civilization destroys itself first, which would be pretty soon in this case). The question is how unnecessarily painful society is going to make process of unlocking that potential. The less, the better, but I'm confident that even the worst costs we can inflict on ourselves will not outweigh the benefits of automation in the long wrong.

 

[Smilephantomhive]

Please give these self driving trucks less blindspots.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Many truck drivers are killed on the job. It removes a decent paying job but if it means one less potentially fatal job, then I'm all for it

We also have to consider how many new types of jobs are created when a new technology makes human participation obsolete in another job. No more human drivers, but now someone needs to program the routes, upkeep the technology, etc. Although even those tasks will eventually be replaced by technology (if they haven't already).

 

[Avocado]

Many truck drivers are killed on the job. It removes a decent paying job but if it means one less potentially fatal job, then I'm all for it

We also have to consider how many new types of jobs are created when a new technology makes human participation obsolete in another job. No more human drivers, but now someone needs to program the routes, upkeep the technology, etc. Although even those tasks will eventually be replaced by technology (if they haven't already).

Eventually in America, there will be a small wealthy overclass and a large, starving underclass. There will not be any jobs save for maybe teaching, and people will have no way to improve their lot in life since everything is automated. I'd imagine a country like switzerland or denmark would work with people to figure this out, but countries like America and United Kingdom will be way too corrupt to do anything until it is too late. Also, there will be severe crop failures worldwide due to climate change. The next 100 years or so are going to be almost as bad as Europe during the Black Death, if not worse.

 

[Yuurei]

I understand that many people in tech are only thinking of a better future-and that's great-but we can't just keep running ahead while leaving the problems of today behind. They will catch up. They will not just disappear because it's future times now.

 

[Doctor Cringelord]

Eventually in America, there will be a small wealthy overclass and a large, starving underclass. There will not be any jobs save for maybe teaching, and people will have no way to improve their lot in life since everything is automated. I'd imagine a country like switzerland or denmark would work with people to figure this out, but countries like America and United Kingdom will be way too corrupt to do anything until it is too late. Also, there will be severe crop failures worldwide due to climate change. The next 100 years or so are going to be almost as bad as Europe during the Black Death, if not worse.

I know. We're fucked. It sucks.

 

[highlander]

It's been coming for years. I'm kind of surprised it's taken so long. There is also the auto insurance industry who will be affected.

 

[Avocado]

I know. We're fucked. It sucks.

There is literally nothing going for me right now...besides the fact I'm not being eaten alive by starving rats yet...but I wouldn't hold my breath on that, either. Sometimes I wonder why I try so hard to survive when there is neither meaning nor anything pleasurable in life. It seems a lot like suffering for the sake of suffering. Hopefully this teaching thing goes through, as that is one of the last jobs I think will go.

I really wish somebody had taught me hunting and survivalism and how to live off the land. The idea is appealing to me, but I have no skills, knowledge, or experience in that area, and nobody to teach me.

Edit: Then again, in the short term, I can limp along with this pharmacy tech job, but I'll likely be one of the starving masses soon...but so will most of you reading this. That doesn't make it better, I know, but you know, we've had our golden age and we are going to go through a rough spot in history more than likely.

 

[entropie]

It's been coming for years. I'm kind of surprised it's taken so long. There is also the auto insurance industry who will be affected.

Better sensors and better processors, up to the point where you can have multiple sensors in IoT applications. Better software and better handling of I/Os, thru lighter computing. It takes years to set up a better IT infrastructure in those fields to make it accessible to more people and not only hardcore nerds or visionaries.

Its true tho that a lot of white collar work will get needless and be done by automatons. Problem is you cant stop progress.
Maybe it will be necessary in the future to think about, if the people work for the profit or if the profit works for the people. Not in a communist way but in a capitalist societal way.

 

[Typh0n]

Eventually in America, there will be a small wealthy overclass and a large, starving underclass. There will not be any jobs save for maybe teaching, and people will have no way to improve their lot in life since everything is automated. I'd imagine a country like switzerland or denmark would work with people to figure this out, but countries like America and United Kingdom will be way too corrupt to do anything until it is too late. Also, there will be severe crop failures worldwide due to climate change. The next 100 years or so are going to be almost as bad as Europe during the Black Death, if not worse.

I think you're freaking out way too quickly here. New technology tends to replace old jobs, and while some people do lose their jobs because of this, generally alot more are created. This is nothing new, and we can trace it back several centuries. When textile workers were replaced with machines, people lost their jobs, yet years later, there were more jobs created than lost. As [MENTION=19700]Anaximander[/MENTION] said, truck driving is a risky job and replacing it with another is in a way humane. Just like replacing textile work and alot of factory work with machines helped eliminate child labor as productivity, wealth, and quality of life went up, people didn't need to put their children to work in factories anymore.

I understand about the corrption in America, but there is corruption everywhere. In Europe too. I understand that Northern Europe is closer to your model society than America is, but believe me, special interests and crony capitalism are a thing here too...

We don't know what the jobs of the future will look like, and hopefullythey they won't all require a degree in software engineering. I'm all for short training sessions that help people find decent, well-paying jobs, rather than long studies that leave people with debt and no way to pay it off.

 

[Lord Lavender]

Eventually in America, there will be a small wealthy overclass and a large, starving underclass. There will not be any jobs save for maybe teaching, and people will have no way to improve their lot in life since everything is automated. I'd imagine a country like switzerland or denmark would work with people to figure this out, but countries like America and United Kingdom will be way too corrupt to do anything until it is too late. Also, there will be severe crop failures worldwide due to climate change. The next 100 years or so are going to be almost as bad as Europe during the Black Death, if not worse.

Chill out new technology will make things better overall. Back in the industrial age there was many people who thought all these new fangled machines would take all the jobs and instead it just created new jobs.

 

[Avocado]

Chill out new technology will make things better overall. Back in the industrial age there was many people who thought all these new fangled machines would take all the jobs and instead it just created new jobs.

Yes, but many of the jobs it created are lower paying. There needs to be something besides the academic path for people to earn enough money to enjoy the finer things in life. Not everybody is college material, after all. For those people, there needs to be something well paying they can do. Monen may not buy happiness directly, but it buys the things that can provide you happiness. Everybody needs to earn enough to garuntee their safety, their sense of self-worth and dignity, their chance to belong in the world, and a chance to retire so they may enjoy some of their life. Without that, are you really living?

 

[Typh0n]

Yes, but many of the jobs it created are lower paying. There needs to be something besides the academic path for people to earn enough money to enjoy the finer things in life. Not everybody is college material, after all. For those people, there needs to be something well paying they can do. Monen may not buy happiness directly, but it buys the things that can provide you happiness. Everybody needs to earn enough to garuntee their safety, their sense of self-worth and dignity, their chance to belong in the world, and a chance to retire so they may enjoy some of their life. Without that, are you really living?

Well said, I agree that we need more jobs that don't require long college degrees. I think that if we want to do something about education, there needs to be some kind of impetus on the part of those funding it to invest in shorter training sessions that allow people to find decent jobs. The focus needs to be on skills, not degrees.

 

[Little_Sticks]

Normally, I'd say something like this is good because it creates other jobs where people can maintain and repair the new tech. But we already have mechanics, so this literally just removes jobs.

sucks to be a truck driver then.

 

[lowtech redneck]

I was talking with a friend who wanted to get into the trucking industry about this just a few hours ago. He wasn't happy (especially as he had just been fired from his home security installation job).

I'm still skeptical (there's just so much of a human factor involved in everyday driving decisions, its not like trains or automobile assembly) but it seems they may have figured something out.

Bad for my state in the medium term, by some measures truck-driving is apparently the single most prevalent job in Georgia.

 

[Little_Sticks]

Yes, but many of the jobs it created are lower paying. There needs to be something besides the academic path for people to earn enough money to enjoy the finer things in life. Not everybody is college material, after all. For those people, there needs to be something well paying they can do. Monen may not buy happiness directly, but it buys the things that can provide you happiness. Everybody needs to earn enough to garuntee their safety, their sense of self-worth and dignity, their chance to belong in the world, and a chance to retire so they may enjoy some of their life. Without that, are you really living?

Unfortunately, we all compete for that money and the happiness it can provide. All workers carry a value depending on supply and demand of their skills. If someone wants to make more money, they need to start a business of their own or convince a business they are worth the money they want to be paid. And going to college generally does that for people as long as there is a demand for the skills they've acquired.

But it would be nice if we could all have our basic needs met without requiring a job. With enough advances in technology, I suppose that will happen at some point (if the human race doesn't go extinct). But we're just not anywhere close to that. Ironically, even though automated cars removes jobs, it also automates transportation of goods, getting us closer to not having to work.

 

[Typh0n]

The idea we will replaced with machines seems not only implausible, but undesireable. Even if we can get machines to build themselves and to look after themselvres, to finance themselves when it comes to building and maintenance (all unlikely), is being dependant on machnies what we want? I'd still rather be cave man if that's what "progress" is about. A cave man has willpower, he can make decisions of his own, but if you're dependant on machines what is left of individual human willpower? Aeren't we just like dependant children, with the robots looking after us like parents, except that unlike a parent their role is not to lead us into adulthood but to rob us of independance?

 

[Haven]

The idea we will replaced with machines seems not only implausible, but undesireable. Even if we can get machines to build themselves and to look after themselvres, to finance themselves when it comes to building and maintenance (all unlikely), is being dependant on machnies what we want? I'd still rather be cave man if that's what "progress" is about. A cave man has willpower, he can make decisions of his own, but if you're dependant on machines what is left of individual human willpower? Aeren't we just like dependant children, with the robots looking after us like parents, except that unlike a parent their role is not to lead us into adulthood but to rob us of independance?

You can go out and live like a cave man, no one will stop you.

 

[Typh0n]

You can go out and live like a cave man, no one will stop you.

WTF?

Is that what I said? I said rather live like a cave man than have robots take care of me, I didn't say I wanted to live like a cave man. It was a question of choosing between alternatives, neither of which are a question at this point.

Seriously, are you trolling or just incapable of grasping the difference?