Are self driving trucks the long term solution to the driver shortage? Or will autonomous vehicles simply change the way drivers do their work every day?
Trucking has struggled to keep pace with hiring needs over the last decade and a half. Partly due to sector growth, and partly due to replacing retired workers, the estimated shortfall on annual qualified drivers is estimated around 50K currently, and projected to creep higher annually.
Can automated driving technology stretch driver availability by making the job easier? Or should our main focus be making it safer in terms of mitigating the human error the NTSB cites as being responsible for 94% of all fatal crashes?
I wrote an article about Self Driving Truck tech for Oil & Energy Magazine you can read here on the issue:
Self Driving Trucks & the Driver Shortage
What do you think the role of autonomous tech should be long term?
