California’s State Senate this week passed a bill which, if signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom, would require autonomous semi-trailer trucks to have a trained human safety operator whenever they operate on public roads [...]

California Senate approves ban on autonomous trucks::California’s State Senate this week passed a bill which, if signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom, would require autonomous semi-trailer trucks to have a trained human safety operator whenever they operate on public roads […]

  • Max-P@lemmy.max-p.meEnglish
    446·
    1 year ago

    I’ve seen enough dashcam footage from truck drivers being cut off in traffic and nearly causing a major accident or running over people that this seems like a pretty wise decision until the technology matures.

    Trucks have a huge amount of momentum, they can’t just slam the brakes like on a Tesla. Humans aren’t particularly good at split second decisions but I feel experienced truckers definitely have better guts on how to react than a computer. Fully support requiring someone to keep an eye on it for now.

    • El Barto@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22·
      1 year ago

      You’d be surprised at how quickly a truck can brake to a complete stop.

      But you’re right regardless. It’s the momentum what makes them dangerous. If a car taps another car for half a second, the damage might be catastrophic. A semi doing the same? Yikes.

      • oatscoop@midwest.socialEnglish
        171·
        1 year ago

        “The humans brain is currently better at understanding edge cases, dealing with incredibly odd situations, and predicting other human’s behavior than AI” is more of a fact than a feeling.

        Self driving AI doesn’t notice the driver passing them is nodding off or screaming while giving it the finger. It doesn’t pick up the subtle clues that another driver is drunk or distracted. It can’t see that a load in a pickup truck it’s following isn’t properly secured and predict it falling off.

        Self driving AI currently struggles with fairly common situations. It’s not ready to be in charge of something as deadly as a semi-truck.

        • sizzler@lemmy.worldEnglish
          21·
          1 year ago

          I don’t disagree but all of those examples you gave were human. I bet they will be able to recognise drunk quickly. Everything you argue with is present “knowledge”. It’ll grow and the weak link will be people around the roads as you so wisely point out.