At California start-up Embark, there already are indications of how trucking jobs are about to change. The company has made test-runs in which it is using self-driving trucks to ship refrigerators from a warehouse in Texas to a distribution center in Palm Springs. There is a driver in the cab, but for the bulk of the ride, when the truck is on the I-10 Freeway, that person is not driving. Eventually, there could be nobody in the cab for legs of the trip. Embark’s CEO says truck drivers still will have jobs and their quality of life will be much improved. Instead of making long hauls thousands of miles, he says they could stay in their communities and handle the more-complicated short hops at the beginning and end of the trips, along with loading and unloading.
Teamsters executives are skeptical, particularly as many pilot programs exhibit a diminished role for blue-collar workers. Volvo, for example, boasts how the autonomous garbage truck it developed doesn’t need a driver in the cab to navigate the route, freeing up that person to load the trash bins. Two jobs appear to become one. Many of the new positions created by such technology look nothing like the stable trucking jobs that are a staple of blue-collar America. They involve coding, data analysis and operation of complicated computer systems.
Classroom discussion questions:
- What are the plusses and minuses of driverless trucks?
- When do you think the autonomous vehicle revolution will actually impact society?