Large number of drivers are out of crisis due to the appearance of automatic driving truck

Long-distance truck drivers in the US are the only occupations that can earn mid-term salaries of about $ 40,000 per year (about 4 million yen) without any academic qualifications. On the other hand,Uber Acquires Automatic Operation Truck Startup "Otto"Operation of automatic operation trucks is becoming realistic, such as promoting automation of distribution, and if the operation of the automatic operation truck starts, the long distance truck driver existing in the United States in the United States will be in the office Although it will be threatened, Vox keeps on the future of such a track driver.

1.8 million American truck drivers could lose their jobs to robots. What then? - Vox
http://www.vox.com/2016/8/3/12342764/autonomous-trucks-employment

According to the American Trucking Association, hundreds of freight transportation trucks in the U.S. are part of the American economy, and in 2015, 67% of cargo transport in the U.S. and 9.2 billion tons of cargo a year It was said that it transported. Truck drivers who can obtain relatively high salaries without requiring university education do not have alternate occupations that can obtain the same salary under the same conditions, but with the advent of automatic driving trucks, 1.8 million truck drivers There is a possibility that the unemployment of a company may begin.

Many automobiles already keep running speed and inter-vehicle distance automaticallyAuto cruiseAlthough the operation support function such as the function is carried, the complete automatic driving car has not appeared yet. These automatic driving functions work relatively well without problems on expressways, but there is a problem that automatic operation in urban areas is difficult. On the other hand, since it is possible to mount far more sensors and cameras than passenger cars on a truck, it is anticipated that the automatic driving truck will be put to practical use earlier than the automatic driving car.


Some automated driving trucks have already reached "3" in five levels at the level of automation specified by the National Road Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and Daimler, Germany's leading car maker, also conducted a level 3 automatic road truck public road test In addition to Otto, we are doing public road test with the same level of automatic driving track.


Otto states the timing of the commercialization of the automatic driving truck "immediately", but it is expected to concretely be within one to two years. Furthermore, it is expected that development speed will be accelerated by being acquired by Uber. However, Otto's automatic driving truck can not automate the transportation of cargo, which means that it is necessary for the driver to get in the movie as well, and it seems that human hands are still needed for a while.

In addition, you can see how the Otto automatic operation track actually runs from the following movie.

Otto - Self-Driving Trucks - YouTube