We live in the age of multi-tasking. To be plugged in and
tuned in all the time is the norm. We
live in the age of the busy mind. But a professional driver is expected to be
tuned in to the task at hand for long periods of time day in and day out.
Distraction is one of the key safety issues we face today. Before we spend a
large amount of time and effort trying to attract young people to the driving
profession shouldn’t we be asking some uncomfortable questions? Are we taking
in to account the changing popular culture? Are we stuck in a trucking culture
of the past? Are we guilty of not adapting to a changing world?
Perhaps professional drivers are a dying breed and that’s a
fact we simply don’t want to face. I know many of you reading this may feel
that we will always need a “pilot” in the cab. But that opinion does not mesh
with the goals of Artificial Intelligence and the vision of a connected world.
It’s time to put our emotional attachments to our love of driving for a living
aside and do our best to take an objective look at our world. Artificial
intelligence is going to turn our world inside out and upside down for the next
several decades and it’s starting now.
I listened to a radio documentary recently by Ira Basen
titled “Into the Deep: The Promise and Perils of Artificial Intelligence.” This
documentary investigates “deep learning”, the ability of computers to think in
very human ways. You can find it on the CBC Sunday Edition website if you want
to give it a listen. I found it fascinating, exciting, and somewhat terrifying.
It’s worth an hour of your time.
The most uncomfortable part of listening to this documentary
is when you are introduced to “Flippy”. Flippy is a robot imbued with artificial
intelligence. Flippy started work at a Pasadena California fast food restaurant
in March of this year. He may be replacing 2.3 million fast food cooks in the
US in the very near future. Officially Flippy is called a kitchen assistant and
sells for about $30,000, or about the annual salary of one of those fast food
cooks he replaces. When production is rolled out the price of that kitchen
assistant will be around $10,000. As Ira Basen states in his documentary, “You
do the math”.
In the trucking industry we have been focusing on automated
trucks and how they impact drivers as a piece of stand-alone technology. But
what if there is a “Truckey” in our future? A robot endowed with artificial
intelligence that works along with the automated truck performing the tasks of
the human driver. Perhaps Truckey will interact with Shippy on the loading
dock. It’s hard not to think of this scenario as something out of a Hollywood
movie and not a real possibility in our near future.
The thing is we are really not very good at envisioning what
the future may hold for us. This is especially true if you have spent your
lifetime working in this great industry as a driver. Artificial Intelligence
and the changes it will bring to pass is not a trucking industry issue. It is
an issue that changes our human society on a global scale. It does not matter
what your profession is. You will be impacted in some way shape or form. Yes,
there will be jobs created by this new technology but there will be far more
jobs that will be made obsolete as a result.
The solution to our driver shortage is probably not where we
think it is as we look at it through the lens of our past experience. As
drivers we should stop worrying about what the future holds and enjoy every day
we have on the road. We may very well be the last of a dying breed.
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