<story><title>Will automation put an end to the American trucker?</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/10/american-trucker-automation-jobs</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>didgeoridoo</author><text>The approach that Starsky (&lt;a href=&quot;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;starsky.io&amp;#x2F;&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;starsky.io&amp;#x2F;&lt;/a&gt;) is taking seems to be a promising one. They employ truck drivers as remote pilots for the &amp;quot;first and last mile&amp;quot;, i.e. the local roads and loading dock work that autonomous vehicles struggle with most. Other advantages include lower fuel costs (driving slower because AVs aren&amp;#x27;t subject to operator-hour limits) and probably also lower labor costs (you don&amp;#x27;t need to pay truckers as much if the job is safe and nearby to home).&lt;p&gt;If the Starsky model ends up dominating, this &lt;i&gt;could&lt;/i&gt; all add up to a case where the price of truck transportation drops so much that demand for truck drivers actually increases, possibly even counterbalancing the pressure of individual truckers being able to manage multiple vehicles at once. This would be an example of the &amp;quot;Jevons Effect&amp;quot; &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Jevons_paradox&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Jevons_paradox&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Will automation put an end to the American trucker?</title><url>https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/10/american-trucker-automation-jobs</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>patrickg_zill</author><text>&amp;quot;Then what you have is a truckers’ lounge with 20 or 30 guys standing around getting paid.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;THAT&amp;#x27;s the error: those guys aren&amp;#x27;t getting paid anything to stand there.  They get paid by the mile.  Making them wait is benefiting the warehouse, and costing THEM.</text></comment>