It might begin very soon

Hammerboy wrote:

pnichols wrote:
Scarry is right!!

Imagine how full of integrated circuits, complex mechanical components, and communications equipment (for Internet and/or satellite connectivity) ... those trucks will be full of. All of tlhat can, and will, fail here and there over time.

I hope that transportation regulations require those trucks to be clearly marked - including distinctive night lighting - so that the rest of us can stay well away from them on the highways.

P.S. Maybe I spent too many years working in the integrated circuits industry and too many hours watching those cable reality shows about big rig accident disasters in Alaska - most which have nothing to do with human error - but can be blamed on 80,000 lbs. of freight inter-acting with the laws of physics.

Someday in the near future we will think it's scary when a human is behind the wheel. "What if the driver falls asleep?" "What if the driver is not paying attention or has a medical problem"

Dan

Well ... there is one big and very important difference between a human truck driver and a technology truck driver: A human truck driver has an ultimately selfish reason to not want to get into, or cause, an accident involving what he's riding in. It's called self preservation.

I don't think a bundle of technology is self-aware enough to be concerned with preserving itself. Software, integrated circuits, engine control modules, accelerometers, braking systems, tire pressure monitoring systems, steering mechanisms, pattern recognition image capture systems, satellite/Internet antennas, etc., etc. ... could care less about what happens to themselves resulting from "not paying attention" or "errors in judgement" that they might make.