SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom has vetoed a bill to require human drivers on board self-driving trucks, a measure that union leaders and truck drivers said would save hundreds of thousands of jobs in the state.

  • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    87
    arrow-down
    8
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m sorry, but do people actually think human drivers in autonomous vehicles will make them safe?

    Imagine sitting and watching a robot do its job for hours - do you think you’d be attentive to safety problems after all that time?

    • Takumidesh@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      This is a real thing, they are called operators and it is their job to oversee the cell, start and stop jobs, resolve bottlenecks, identify upstream problems and gracefully handle them, and emergency stop the system when needed.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        arrow-down
        5
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah, part of my job making car parts is as an operator for a cell. Im constantly moving, troubleshooting, doing minor maintenance, and actively engaged in the process.

        A driver-operator would be sitting down doing mostly nothing. Totally different

      • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        I imagine they could do just as well having an operator sit in a cubicle all day flipping between video feeds of a dozen different vehicles. Then when manual control needs to be taken over they could operate it with a joystick or something and play truck simulator.

          • Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            It still drives on its own, connection is just to monitor or to help get out of situations it might get stuck in so traffic jams don’t occur. If connection fails it would have been no different than having no driver in the cab which Is the plan already.

    • Madison_rogue@kbin.socialOP
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yes. Tractors already have a number of built-in visual and audible alarms when the onboard sensors detect things like veering, severe pitch, and traffic. Oh, that and it’s a driver’s job to watch and respond to road conditions.

      Not to also mention that student driver teachers perform a job like this already.

      • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        16
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 year ago

        Tractors aren’t traffic. That’s clearly very different.

        Student driver teachers, meanwhile, are teaching. That’s more than simply watching for mistakes, which would be an inhumanly boring job that I honestly don’t think anyone could do.

        • sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          4
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          Exactly. And student drivers are only active for like 20-30 min at a time. A truck would be active for hours at a time.

          Instead of trying to build autonomous trucks, we should be building out rail and move more stuff and people that way.

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            arrow-down
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Yeah, but they don’t need to react within seconds when there is a problem. They can zone out and nothing bad will happen.

            A driver-operator needs to be hyper vigilant at all times and react within seconds to any problems because at any moment the software could fuck up and kill someone.

    • money_loo@1337lemmy.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      arrow-down
      16
      ·
      1 year ago

      This is a tech sub on lemmy.ml, prepare to be flooded by luddites afraid of all things tech. Eventually you learn subs only exist for the stuff people hates here, not the stuff people love.

      • PowerCrazy@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        7
        ·
        1 year ago

        The luddites have been proven right, but your strawman of the luddites is absolutely wrong.

            • theluddite@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              I like technology. I think it can make our lives better, but some people, notably capitalists, often use technology to make our lives worse. When that happens, we should smash their machines.

        • money_loo@1337lemmy.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          9
          ·
          1 year ago

          Y’know it’s funny because one of the proposed benefits of lemmy was the decentralized nature of the forums meant you could pick from the ones you liked, yet I’ve subbed to 5 tech instances here and they are all exactly the same. Nothing but F.U.D. This will be the last remaining one I unsubscribe from, and even end up blocking because of the nonsense.

          So, yeah, apparently that thing being a benefit was a lie when in reality it will just populate with the same people saying the same things.

          Ah well…enjoy your echo chambers I guess!

            • money_loo@1337lemmy.com
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 year ago

              Or more likely, the people who hate something the most are more likely to post about it than people who love it or are ambivalent. No worries though, I blocked the forum so we won’t have to trouble each other anymore.

              • ANGRY_MAPLE@sh.itjust.works
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                edit-2
                1 year ago

                You also can want safety improvements before something becomes widespread without also “hating” it overall, you know.

                The choice doesn’t have to be between “absolutely everything now”, and “never”. There’s a lot of room in between the two, and I see no reason to rush something, when unnecessarily rushing it could cost lives.