155
submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

California Senate approves ban on autonomous trucks::California’s State Senate this week passed a bill which, if signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom, would require autonomous semi-trailer trucks to have a trained human safety operator whenever they operate on public roads [...]

all 31 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] GnothiSeauton@lemmy.world 53 points 1 year ago

Just wait until they secretly replace the trained human safety operator with this:

[-] Max_P@lemmy.max-p.me 36 points 1 year ago

I've seen enough dashcam footage from truck drivers being cut off in traffic and nearly causing a major accident or running over people that this seems like a pretty wise decision until the technology matures.

Trucks have a huge amount of momentum, they can't just slam the brakes like on a Tesla. Humans aren't particularly good at split second decisions but I feel experienced truckers definitely have better guts on how to react than a computer. Fully support requiring someone to keep an eye on it for now.

[-] sizzler@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago
[-] oatscoop@midwest.social 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

"The humans brain is currently better at understanding edge cases, dealing with incredibly odd situations, and predicting other human's behavior than AI" is more of a fact than a feeling.

Self driving AI doesn't notice the driver passing them is nodding off or screaming while giving it the finger. It doesn't pick up the subtle clues that another driver is drunk or distracted. It can't see that a load in a pickup truck it's following isn't properly secured and predict it falling off.

Self driving AI currently struggles with fairly common situations. It's not ready to be in charge of something as deadly as a semi-truck.

[-] sizzler@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

I don't disagree but all of those examples you gave were human. I bet they will be able to recognise drunk quickly. Everything you argue with is present "knowledge". It'll grow and the weak link will be people around the roads as you so wisely point out.

[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

While you're at it make them pay extra for the amount trucking just fucking eats public infrastructure.

[-] vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I don't usually agree with many American leftist talking points, but really what's it with railways being so little used in the USA? When you need scale with regular routes and regular volumes of anything, it's unrivaled.

[-] hoch@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

US railways are heavily used. In fact, we have the largest rail network in the world.

The problem is that it's almost exclusively used for freight.

[-] bezerker03@lemmy.bezzie.world 5 points 1 year ago

Do you want your goods to become stupid expensive or something?

[-] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

Was not taxing them keeping the costs down? I hadn't noticed.

[-] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 year ago
[-] surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Cost is determined more by what people are willing to pay and less by what it costs to make the product.

If they can charge $5 for a bottle of water, they're going to do that whether it's costs $1 or $2 to make.

So if they could increase costs today, they would. An increased tax would give them a politically friendly exercuse to do so, but it's just an excuse. They'd do it either way.

[-] Sanctus@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

No, what I really want is more transportation options to get as many fucking people off the road as possible. Covid was beautiful when no one was driving but my company made me.

[-] stepan@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

But rail infrastructure isn't that good yet in north America.

If only there was a solution to that which keeps getting ignored

[-] bender@insaneutopia.com 16 points 1 year ago
[-] Steve@compuverse.uk 11 points 1 year ago

Generally no.
A few larger companies do.

[-] baccano@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

I thought the Teamsters were the trucker union and were relatively powerful....

[-] Radium@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Teamsters have a freight division but the total teamster membership was 1.3 in 2015 and there were 3.6 million truckers in the United States in 2020, so I wouldn’t say most truckers are in a union.

Teamsters doesn’t disclose what percent of their membership is made up by their freight division

[-] legopika 3 points 1 year ago

Don't forget that the package division(ups) is a large chunk of their membership.

According to their website "The Package Division is the union’s largest division, serving hundreds of thousands of members throughout North America."

[-] altima_neo@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 year ago

Dunno shit that. My dad was teamsters, but he was just a warehouse worker.

Nope. Many are independent contractors.

[-] FrankTheHealer@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago
[-] BossDj@lemm.ee 13 points 1 year ago

According to the article, safety concerns and job protection

[-] SCB@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

This is an insanely bad decision.

[-] 5BC2E7@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Probably to protect jobs. They are willing to risk our lives in cities since they allow autonomous cars there. So it’s unlikely that they have safety concerns with trucks

[-] SCB@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Newsom has lost his mind with this one.

[-] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

So California is down with the Decepticons?

Fuck Optimus Prime?

Bold move.

[-] kriz@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 year ago

They'll just go secretive and underground like in that Simpsons episode

[-] Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

Sure, wouldn't want them teaming up with the robo taxis already clogging SF streets.

this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
155 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

59449 readers
3014 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS