[danohuiginn]

>the best start is short-haul intermodal

bingo. In container ports, long-distance drivers will generally dump their trailer to be shunted and loaded internally, and pick up another one. Separate cabs are attached to move things around within the port.

These could relatively easily become driverless. It's a highly controlled and automated environment. Every moment a ship is in the port costs money, so there's a big reward for improving reliability and shaving seconds off (un)load times. It might make financial sense even in Asian ports with low wage costs for drivers.

Same with mining or heavy industry. Where companies might now build their own railways, in the future they could build a road and run driverless trucks along it. Being outside of public road systems makes the legal situation easier, and you can always have a human jump in to drive the last mile.

[MaulingMonkey]

No "in the future" about it... we're already seeing automated ore haulers in Australia's pit mines, for example. It's a perfect storm of a controlled, sparsely populated and dangerous environment, relatively low cost (thanks to fewer, larger vehicles, and automation costs rising slower than size), etc.