[graylights]

Driverless trucks is a real opportunity that could save a lot of money in shipping.

But it could be exploited. If a person walks out in front of a truck, the automated truck better stop. Which an unguarded truck would become easy to rob with little risk. A flat tire would mean the truck calls in for help and is stranded defenseless on the side of the road. That said a fair amount of loss could probably be absorbed with the savings.

I expect long haul truck drivers instead to turn into truck captains. They're present but not for the driving. The truck can drive through the night while they sleep. The captain will handle weigh-ins, emergencies and other road tasks.

[tempestn]

Honestly, I would rather this situation occur to a "defenseless" driverless truck than to one with a driver who might be injured or killed in the process. I highly doubt the rate of people stepping out in front of semis to rob them would increase drastically in any case.

[svantana]

whereas a manned truck in the same situation would just run over the guy? And what about locks, cameras, burglar alarms etc?

Surely a manned truck of today is easier to rob. You don't even need to move the goods, just steal the whole truck and be done with it.

[sigstoat]

by the time you're crazy enough to step out in front of any sort of semi in hopes it will stop, so you can rob it, i don't think you're doing risk calculations in a rational way.

[msandford]

Okay so put a mannequin with enough of a heater inside of it to pass for human on IR and strap it atop a roomba and then have THAT "step out" in front of a truck. It's a $1000 dummy and as long as you rob every 5th truck successfully (20%, but really you'll probably get 90% of them) you can make back all the money on busted dummies and more.

[danohuiginn]

One human 'captain' for a convoy might make sense.