In Texas, driverless trucks are set to take over roads

Who is responsible, and who pays, when the inevitable happens and one of these trucks rides over a family car, or misses a corner and ploughs into a school?

I know this would be much farther down the line, but what happens when there are no more truck driving jobs?

I'm not just talking about how it directly affects truck drivers either. What exactly will happen to all of the roadside businesses who rely on truckers as their customer base?

These truck are on their own, they have escort, even truck with human have guide truck that follow them, I stay on a, route, that you can stay on the same highway into Houston ,it the main artery out of Houston Google Texas Truck Driver Wreck

How does the AI handle coming up on a major accident? Does the truck just sit idle until the accident is cleared? Can the AI respond to traffic control officers' commands?

I'm not just talking about how it directly affects truck drivers either. What exactly will happen to all of the roadside businesses who rely on truckers as their customer base?

Waffle House and Loves gas stations will fall on hard times, that's for sure.

Tire blow out?

No problem the algorithm will fix it

gary

 even truck with human have guide truck that follow them, I stay on a, route, that you can stay on the same highway into Houston ,it the main artery out of Houston Google Texas Truck Driver Wreck

I was in the trucking industry for over 15 years in the US. The only loads that rate any kind of escort are oversize loads (also called "permit loads" because the operator needs to obtain a special permit for the trip usually from a state agency) or some classified loads for the military. The latter might have an armed escort but not always. Sometimes the only requirement is two drivers who are armed and have special self defense training to protect the load. I drove well over a million miles and never had an escort.

I want to see how an unmanned truck gets in and out of a big port, finds an empty chassis for the container, hooks up to it, connects the air lines and electrical pig tail, cranks up the landing gear then goes to the right place in the terminal to have their container loaded on the chassis. Oh yeah, who secures the container to the chassis because right now the driver is the one who has to do that (operate the twist locks at each corner). I think, some jobs in trucking that will always require a human driver.

The concept of AI trucking is that the AI trucks do the long haul on highways between hubs and drivers take over for the remaining part requiring human input, dealing with people at the receiver/ shipper location.

Unload or load and take the trailer back to a hub.

Trucking companies can make driving a more attractive job, since drivers will be home every night and not gone for weeks - the number one complaint of drivers.

I'm thinking of the distribution hubs in parts of the LA Basin where the nearest freeway is 60-70 years old and the ramps are very tight. Ditto the main freeway leading out of the port of Long Beach. The outside front tire is crawling the outside curb of the ramp front bumper maybe a foot from the guardrail and the inside rear tire of the trailer up over the curb on the inside. Wonder if the developers are testing how these things negotiate tight turns?

My first thought was how is it going to pump its gas?

They’ll have flux capacitors.

Peter Neil. Trucking companies can make driving a more attractive job, since drivers will be home every night and not gone for weeks - the number one complaint of drivers.

That’s very true of the older drivers and those with families but a lot of the younger ones want the long-haul loads because they generally pay much better than milk runs. The rates for cross country loads in the U.S. are just crazy right now.

"...and the inside rear tire of the trailer up over the curb on the inside."

Driver; slide those trailer tandems forward...!

Nada. It's not going to happen anytime soon.

The reasons are too long to list here.