Sure, Your Truck Is Cool, But Is It Self-Driving?

How many times have you dreamed of just having someone else drive the truck because you were too tired to do it yourself or simply not in the mood for it? As much as you might love your truck, there is never a bad time for a little break. Sound like a fantasy?

It might. But no science fiction movie can top the reality of this: a self-driving truck, running free on the highway while the driver is carefully texting someone from the backseat. As crazy as it might sound to you, this fantasy-like scenario is far from being a "Candid Camera" hoax. Self-driving trucks are real, and they are surely about to get a lot of attention.

A Self-Driving Truck Makes Its First Delivery

The world’sfirst autonomous truck delivery just happened recently on the way to Colorado Springs, while 50,000 cans of Budweiser were unknowingly witnessing history unfolding. San Francisco startup Otto is the one behind this extraordinary yet so remarkably mundane moment. It almost seems as if they just wanted to get those cans of beer delivered; why should there be any fuss about that?

Mundane? Not really. A sense of awe is the best way to describe its impact on us. But if this also brings a sense of anxiety, don’t worry; it’s only normal to be frightened. What are the implications of self-driving trucks? What does it mean more precisely? And is that amazing truck of yours suddenly doomed to lose its value?

The answer is no. You are, by far, irreplaceable. While many might be worried, autonomous technology for trucks is only applicable on highways, where driving does not have to rely on complex and unstable variables – such as kids popping up from the sidewalk.

What Will Happen Next?

This technology is only designed to make driving on the highway easier, more effective and much, much safer. Human error is what causes more than 4000 deaths a year in truck collisions. Who wouldn’t want that to be drastically reduced? Not to mention the gigantic, and ever-growing need that the trucking industry has uncovered. If anything, autonomous technology is here to make the roads safer, to reduce emissions and to improve the overall efficiency of the industry.

Of course, the technology can still bring up to the surface issues that are begging for some careful consideration. As much as software can really reduce human error, can we morally rely on them at the price of human people’s lives?

No answer can come easily to such important questions that run deeper than just mere practicality. But while we are thinking about it, the technology can only improve, transforming extraordinary into ordinary facts. Autonomous technology is apparently here already, and it is definitely here to stay. The question is, are we jumping on the autonomous truck bandwagon or..?

Here at Pacific Truck Colors we think about this a lot. We’d be more than happy to hear what you think.

Kris is a reputed writer and blogger and he loves to share his articles in different internet community over the years.