[bob1029]

Why does something with as much mass as a semi truck have the ability to wrest control away from the operator in the first place?

Collision avoidance nannies seem substantially more tolerable when the physics equation has 2 zeroes removed from the mass figure.

It's not like arbitrary jackasses can get behind the wheel of these vehicles anyways... there is a reason a commercial licensing program exists.

[mschuster91]

> It's not like arbitrary jackasses can get behind the wheel of these vehicles anyways... there is a reason a commercial licensing program exists.

The problem isn't "arbitrary jackasses", the problem is the relentless pace modern truckers are put through. Utterly insane demands for just-in-time delivery that have absolutely no margin left for inevitable delays or completely unrealistic schedules that many drivers compensate for by driving longer than allowed. Add on that drivers who self-medicate the loneliness on the road with alcohol, dope or other stuff and that explains a majority of the accidents that could be (or are) prevented with collision avoidance systems.

The remainder are irresponsible other motorists who think it's a great idea to merge 2m in front of a truck after overtaking it - yeah of course, the truck driver will be widely awake now, thank you very much...

[UncleEntity]

> delivery that have absolutely no margin left for inevitable delays or completely unrealistic schedules that many drivers compensate for by driving longer than allowed. Add on that drivers who self-medicate the loneliness on the road with alcohol, dope or other stuff and that explains a majority of the accidents that could be (or are) prevented with collision avoidance systems.

Back in the 70s it was like that…

I first started driving in ‘98 and if you weren’t at one of the larger companies you could get away with a lot due to paper logbooks. Now it’s all electronic logs and GPS tracking so you can get away with basically nothing, gone are the days where you delivered the load and then made your logs look pretty — up until the DOT would start targeting specific companies so they would crack down on the drivers turning in falsified logs.

And drug/alcohol testing has been mandatory since the Reagan administration. People still do it but they don’t last very long.

One in a while they give me a load or two where I have to push it harder than I like but that just burns all my hours so they can’t do it very often if they want the truck to keep moving. In the before times you’d just rewrite your logbook and magically have enough hours to keep moving but that doesn’t work anymore.

[throwaway0a5e]

Remind me again, what's your point of exposure to the American trucking industry?

It's kind of ironic that someone on a different continent feels as though they can speak authoritatively on the subject. This kind of hubris, albeit in the Diamler-Benz office rather than wherever you're sitting, is exactly how the half-baked tech features the person you are replying to is complaining about make it into the truck. Of course there's multiple parties at fault. The American bean counters have no incentive to not buy those features even if they make the job worse for the employees.

[UncleEntity]

There was one time I was driving around the Atlanta Super Speedway and a car intentionally slammed on the brakes right in front of me. Without collision avoidance I would have slammed right into the back of him because the truck was breaking before I even realized what they were doing. Not that big of a deal though since the truck had a dashcam which would have shown them to be clearly at fault.

Other than that it is mostly just annoying and slams on the brakes for things like people turning (while you’re actively slowing down) or people slowing down on the exit ramp who are no longer on the highway. That last one I used to use to wake up my co-driver when I was running team when it was time to switch because, why not.

[bluGill]

> Why does something with as much mass as a semi truck have the ability to wrest control away from the operator in the first place?

Because humans - even highly trained professional drivers (who are in general much better than the average person on the road) are terrible drivers that make mistakes all the time. Not to mention humans drivers are limited to two eyes looking in one direction (checking the mirrors takes your eyes off the road, so while you should it is a compromise), a computer has a lot more potential for inputs that humans cannot see.

Now I will admit that making safety programs that work right in all cases is a hard problem. However it is competing against an imperfect system.