Don't Let Robots Drive Trucks

Remember how this turned out in the movie?

There's a big difference between a tractor and a 4-wheeler. Truckers understand that, but civilians seem to be confused. There's a reason why every truck driver is rolling down the highway with a cool $1 million in liability coverage: a truck in the wrong hands can create havoc like very little else.

'Round the Classic offices, we find the idea of getting in one of these self-driving cars pretty scary, and the recent incident in Arizona ain't doing much to reassure us. There's been some quibbling over exactly whose fault it was, but the bottom line is that mistakes are going to happen. If there's a machine that's been made that doesn't malfunction, we haven't heard about it yet.

So let me ask you how you feel about those kind of mistakes being made with a vehicle that weighs 80,000 lbs. A truck that can tear through buildings and knock over bridges? Does that make you feel safe?

There is no replacement for the intelligence, intuition, and experience of a trucking professional behind the wheel, and we doubt very much there will be within our lifetimes. Sooner or later, the powers that be are going to figure that out. In the mean time, this push to replace people with machines is going to cost a lot of money, and a lot of lives.