Raw LLM Responses

Well let's be clear of some things that they are not talking about. Most of this self driving is going to replace LONG HAUL first. 9 out of 10 articles all over use the term 'Long Haul' quite a bit. Basically the easy stuff. If you are in a specialty position you probably have a lot longer of a driving career. Most people who are not truck drivers forget the other parts of trucking. I'm not talking about Pre/Post Trip and all of that. Log trucking, those roads were practically made yesterday and are dirt roads. SOME LTL positions will still be around until they automate coupling doubles/triples. That or they'll hire us to do the coupling at terminals. Tanker positions will be a bit tricky for AI at first since you have liquid that is swashing around and with food grade liquid, the tanker cannot be built in a way that would compromise the ability to clean the tanker properly. Hence why food grade tankers do not use baffles. Oversized loads require lots of planning and most of those loads also go off main roads such as the wind turbines. Then you have our brave souls in food service delivering to 8+ restaurants per day (at least my old position was 8+). Not all restaurants are built the same. I have delivered to plenty where the kitchen was either up stairs or down stairs. Cattle haulers, your freight is constantly moving around more so than palletized freight. Though Ai could possibly handle a lot of the driving, moving freight creates problems on sharp turns and such, plus you guys do a lot of backroad driving. Non-Truckers forget just how huge trucking in general is. Truckers who have paid attention to these media posts will note that these Ai trucks are only doing dry van and reefer loads. It is indeed inevitable that these machines will come and take over, but if you love driving you still have plenty of options that will be around a bit longer and will take more time to automate completely. Yes we all have arguments against them, but remember that corporations are looking to cut costs. That part will also take time. Buying just a general truck is costly. This technology is even more so. It's not coming, it's here. But there are still a lot of hurdles for this tech to go through. I'd suggest getting into specialty trucking if you want to stay a driver. Otherwise, just keep on trucking and ignore the media for now. Fear is their ratings and this sparks fear. No one ACTUALLY knows when this tech will be fully implemented. They said several years ago that by now you would be replaced. Yet here you are. Still driving. Probably along side some of those self-driving trucks, but you're still here. It will take time. You may just have to consider giving up OTR at some point and find a new area of trucking. After that, trade jobs are still looking to be in need of people according to research. Those jobs will be around for a long while. To respond to those talking about trains and planes not being automated fully without people the answer is this; It's a lot easier to go get your CDL, get the paperwork in order, buy a truck and start your own company as a truck driver. You would need to jump through so many hoops to start your own airline and train business. If DOT were as strict as, say, the FAA then this new AI would not have happened so quickly. There would be more requirements to start your own business and get into trucking. But someone with several hundred thousands dollars can outright start their own business tomorrow in trucking. That is the difference unfortunately.