Have I missed something? What amazing technology has appeared in the last 10 years? Lane departure warning? Switch it off.
Emergency brakes applied when your truck sees a bridge or parked car? Switch it off. Adaptive cruise control? My VW has it-it’s w@nk.
In 10 years nothing will have changed in trucks other than the vast majority on the road will have the above mentioned crap.
Harry Monk:
eagerbeaver:
" big changes in the next ten years "Yep. Wages might go up by 2%. Driverless trucks?? Not in our lifetime fella.
I don’t think the likes of Google, Tesla, Bosch, Scania, Volvo, Mercedez-Benz etc etc etc would be spending trillions of pounds or have hundreds of thousands of people working on autonomous vehicle projects just to fill up a bit of time on the odd quiet Tuesday afternoon.
Since I’ve been at work we’ve seen an information technology revolution at work and home. From typewriters, phones, card indexes and telex machines, then stand alone word processors and databases, fax machines, through the early mobile phones and the early days of the internet where it was really only a place for geeks and academics to share information, companies didn’t really know how they could benefit from it, but they soon worked out how to market it then social media, and information at your finger tip with smart phones.
So whose to say how robotics will develop, it will probably develop in ways we can’t imagine at the moment and there I’m sure there will be people in jobs who think they’re safe from it being done by robots who’ll find themselves looking for a new profession in 20 or 30 years.
As for trucks, like I said even the people developing still think they’ll need drivers at least in the foreseeable future and I’m sure they’ll be putting bit of hype on what they can achieve to keep the shareholders happy to continue to pay for the expensive development and the media interested, but the technology will develop and probably at an alarming rate.
The real question is what are the new jobs coming out of a robotic revolution and what the people who lose their jobs going to do?
merc0447:
I think the next big problem facing mankind is what humans do with no work to go to.
I think humans will have jobs to go to, but they’ll be pride-less, dystopian and soul-destroying versions of what we do now, and therefore lower paid. For example, our current status of steering wheel attendant will become simply attendant. The de-skilling will dictate minimum wage at best.
In my opinion, I think lorries will become somewhat more autonomous than they are now, but I think the driver will need to be present all the time, and mostly in control much of the time because too many unique situations arise that require human understanding and efficiency. As it stands, every lorry in the land still requires a driver to do most of what he’s been doing for decades. We’re still manually winding the legs down on new trailers for God’s sake, and a good number of us are still driving manuals. I’m yet to find a job where paperwork isn’t used at all, and as recently as last year I was still using ratchet trailer brakes on 30 year old tanks. It’ll be a couple of decades at least before 50% or more of lorries are self driving and we’re all on the dole.
Fincham:
How does the jobsworth at the RDC explain that it is late and will not be tipped.
The ‘jobsworth’ at the RDC will also be a computer. I was driving trailers that loaded and unloaded themselves between factory and car plant back in the 90s. It is easy to imagine that a self driving truck can do what I was doing, without needing breaks or rest periods. The goods I had on board were on stillages - easy to extend the same system to pallets.
I also did pallet deliveries to houses and small businesses, and find it hard to see how a self driving truck could do that work.
And when the “amazon” driverless truck arrives at your house how is the parcel getting from the truck to your door?
And who is going to draw the curtains when the driverless truck arrives at a depot?
Load of ■■■■■ drivel dreamt up by a load of knobs who have never had or ever will have a real job.They get paid for spouting ■■■■■ because thats about all they are fit for.
Bking:
who is going to draw the curtains when the driverless truck arrives at a depot?
People who used to drive trucks.
My lorry can’t even connect the Bluetooth to my phone half the time.
May need a bit more work before we leave it to drive itself
Bking:
And when the “amazon” driverless truck arrives at your house how is the parcel getting from the truck to your door?
And who is going to draw the curtains when the driverless truck arrives at a depot?Load of [zb] drivel dreamt up by a load of knobs who have never had or ever will have a real job.They get paid for spouting [zb] because thats about all they are fit for.
So are you saying that there won’t be driverless trucks on the road in the near future? I understand that Bosch alone have 30,000 people working on their autonomous vehicle project, and they are one of the minor players.
Humans continually inventing technology to ensure that future generations have less employment, as a race we are brilliant at finding ways and means of doing ourselves out of a job of work. 
Pete.
I’ll tell you what the lorry drivers of the future who get put out of work by driverless lorries will be doing.
They’ll be driving non driverless lorries on megabucks delivering the goods because half the driverless ones will be in the workshops at any one time waiting for the robots, designed to fix them, fix them, the robots themselves will have packed up and waiting for a dwindling number of mechanics (who were told their jobs were history too) to fix the robots to fix the trucks…and i don’t know why she swallowed a fly perhaps she’ll die (credits to Burl Ives)…yes you have to be a certain age and listened to Ed Stewpot Stewart and Junior Choice.
Another team of thousands will be recovering driverless lorries which have stopped for any of a hundred reasons causing massive tailbacks.
Amazing how some people think the next generation of computers are going to be so bloody perfect.
If all my years have taught me anything, its that when someone comes up with a massive brainwave costing a fortune to cut costs, make sure you get some rest in, because sure as eggs are eggs you’ll be working night and day earning buckets of dosh to get back up to speed after that brainwave proves to be yet another load of ■■■■■■■■, just like the thousands that preceded it.
windrush:
Humans continually inventing technology to ensure that future generations have less employment, as a race we are brilliant at finding ways and means of doing ourselves out of a job of work.Pete.
Driverless trucks are just the modern equivalent of a traction engine replacing twenty or thirty blokes and half a dozen horses to plough a field, 150 years ago.
No doubt Jethro and Seth said back then that no new fangled machine would ever replace a good man and his horse.
Harry Monk:
windrush:
Humans continually inventing technology to ensure that future generations have less employment, as a race we are brilliant at finding ways and means of doing ourselves out of a job of work.Pete.
Driverless trucks are just the modern equivalent of a traction engine replacing twenty or thirty blokes and half a dozen horses to plough a field, 150 years ago.
No doubt Jethro and Seth said back then that no new fangled machine would ever replace a good man and his horse.
Exactly what I meant Harry. Everything nowadays has to be made easy and involve less manpower, in years to come folk will think that the phrase ‘Manual Labour’ is simply describing a Spanish politician. 
Pete.
Amozon is testing these flying trailers, wont be long you no
Automated trucks will come to yard shunting/dock spotting operations sooner than anything else because it is hardly the most demanding of jobs. All you need is someone opening and closing doors and maybe winding legs up and down, because if a truck can drive itself then it can certainly release fifth wheels and pop shunt buttons itself.
Bking:
Load of [zb] drivel dreamt up by a load of knobs who have never had or ever will have a real job.They get paid for spouting [zb] because thats about all they are fit for.
I think the people at Scania, Volvo, Mercedes, ZF et al probably know a bit more about trucks than you do. Then again, a rotten vegetable probably knows more about trucks than you do.
Olog Hai:
Automated trucks will come to yard shunting/dock spotting operations sooner than anything else because it is hardly the most demanding of jobs. All you need is someone opening and closing doors and maybe winding legs up and down, because if a truck can drive itself then it can certainly release fifth wheels and pop shunt buttons itself.
Personally I think the first use for driverless trucks will be Stobart Carlisle-Crick interdepot trunks and the like.
Harry Monk:
Personally I think the first use for driverless trucks will be Stobart Carlisle-Crick interdepot trunks and the like.
Yes probably first on long distance trunking, the saving on door to door delivery is minimal and requires to much human interaction.
But longer distance is a good option, major savings to be made.
If somebody thinks Britain is to busy, have a drive through Germany, and Germany is one of the big investors in this (Bosch, Mercedes, Knorr Bremse, Siemens etc.)
Shunters are not that far away from being automated, seen demo’s from Knorr-Bremse group, and the shunt is very effective, fast, precise, and uses much less space.
Also as long as there is power, the unit doesn’t need a break.
Self loading and off-loading trailers have been around for more than 30 years.
Off-loaded years ago at a brewery and the transport too the warehouse on the other side of the estate, was done by automated trailers.
Legs where automatic (hydraulic), doors where automatic (roller shutters) and the trailer could load in less than 8 minutes 30 euro’s or 26 chep pallets.
The same time for off-loading.
The future is nearer than we think and maybe hope.
The technology is there, it only needs to be becoming economic to do so, development cost leaning still to heavy on these systems to make it economic viable…yet
caledoniandream:
Harry Monk:
Personally I think the first use for driverless trucks will be Stobart Carlisle-Crick interdepot trunks and the like.Yes probably first on long distance trunking, the saving on door to door delivery is minimal and requires to much human interaction.
But longer distance is a good option, major savings to be made.If somebody thinks Britain is to busy, have a drive through Germany, and Germany is one of the big investors in this (Bosch, Mercedes, Knorr Bremse, Siemens etc.)
Certain parts of Germany are busy, but other routes can be reasonably traffic free, far more so than the uk. Also German companies are as likely to be looking at the export potential as much as the domestic market.
caladoniandream:
Shunters are not that far away from being automated, seen demo’s from Knorr-Bremse group, and the shunt is very effective, fast, precise, and uses much less space.
Also as long as there is power, the unit doesn’t need a break.Self loading and off-loading trailers have been around for more than 30 years.
Off-loaded years ago at a brewery and the transport too the warehouse on the other side of the estate, was done by automated trailers.
Legs where automatic (hydraulic), doors where automatic (roller shutters) and the trailer could load in less than 8 minutes 30 euro’s or 26 chep pallets.
The same time for off-loading.The future is nearer than we think and maybe hope.
The technology is there, it only needs to be becoming economic to do so, development cost leaning still to heavy on these systems to make it economic viable…yet
I think we’ll see the first examples very soon, driverless units in a controlled environment and with a driver on board on the road, but only to monitor and take over in certain situations, with these situations getting fewer as the technology develops.
So once every thig is automated what happen to avarage jo, does he get his dole from an automated dole office,with it deliverd in an automated lorry as the money will be worthless as they would have to keep printing it with there automated printers . Which they have all ready got, ain the futer great ye ha
malcolmgbell:
So once every thig is automated what happen to avarage jo, does he get his dole from an automated dole office,with it deliverd in an automated lorry as the money will be worthless as they would have to keep printing it with there automated printers . Which they have all ready got, ain the futer great ye ha
And what about below average Joe that cannot spell? LOL. This is why everything is being automated because humans are too dim to cope. 
malcolmgbell:
So once every thig is automated what happen to avarage jo, does he get his dole from an automated dole office,with it deliverd in an automated lorry as the money will be worthless as they would have to keep printing it with there automated printers . Which they have all ready got, ain the futer great ye ha
This is the big dilemma, but it’s not a new one.
Jobs have come and gone as new machines or new technology gets introduced and workers have tried to stop the onward march of technology to save thier jobs for hundreds of years, but rarely with any great success, the best most have got is a few extra years.
But technology does create jobs as well as destroy them, so maybe the dilemma isn’t are these people going to have jobs, but are they going to be jobs with decent pay and conditions or will those be eroded even more so global corporations can make more money for a smaller and smaller percentage of the Worlds population.