A Western Pennsylvania company is focused on creating and implementing the driver-less semitruck. It’s a story Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 has been covering over the last week. We’ve looked at how the tech works, how it’s tested in Pittsburgh, the safety and how the government is overseeing the project.Now, we’re focusing on the impact to the industry and what it could mean for truckers and their livelihoods.(For part one of the report, click here. For part two, click here.)“Everyone relies on trucking. You may not know it when you’re buying groceries, but they got there because of our industry,” Chris Spear, President and CEO of American Trucking Associations, said.Trucking is a $1 trillion-a-year industry in America. Drivers are essential. “We’re moving 73% of the economy. We’re 8 1/2 million strong in trucking, which means one in 18 jobs in the United States is trucking-related. The top job in 29 states is trucking related,” Spear said.Spear is the president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, representing drivers in all 50 states at the federal level.He says their industry is staring down a big problem:“The shortage of talent — We have been for some years now running a deficit of drivers and attracting new talent into the industry,” Spear said.According to Spear, there’s a shortage of about 70,000 drivers. In the next decade, that shortage is expected to climb to a million.Aurora Innovations CEO Chris Urmson says safety is a big reason there aren’t enough workers. Those reasons also extend to time away from home and health outcomes.The hope is autonomous technology could help and take over the long-haul routes. Spear says those jobs are the hardest to fill.”That’s partly the toughest segment of our industry to serve because you’re away for so long, upwards of three weeks on the road. It also pays the highest, but it has ramifications. Time away from home and your family,” Spear said.Since 2021, Aurora has been running autonomous routes between Houston and Dallas, as well as El Paso and Fort Worth, logging over a million miles.Trucks stop at terminals that Aurora built on each end to load and deliver goods for customers.The trucks drive autonomously but with a safety driver on board, ready to take over at any minute.Aurora expects they’ll be ready to remove drivers by the end of the year.If successful, it will be a slow revolution, starting with only a few dozen trucks. Ultimately, it could change the logistics landscapes and shave days off the delivery time for long hauls.“And what we see this technology enabling through our partners is for freight to get places more safely, more quickly that will allow small farmers to reach further with where they sell their their produce, but when it ultimately also helps people move around cities, it’ll make that easier and safer as well,” Urmson said.We asked what the government is going to do for the people who don’t have work because of AI taking the place of a truck driver. Many drivers we spoke with say they’re afraid this is taking their jobs.I want to get a bunch of my guys together and go picket that company,” Donald Hicklin, a driver from Charlotte, North Carolina, said. “It’s going to be a chain reaction. You’re going to have other companies coming up — and they’re going to repeat the technology — and it’s going to put us out of a job.”The Teamsters are a large trucking union, representing tens of thousands of drivers.They sent Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 this statement. It reads in part: “There should always be a well-trained and properly licensed person in the front seat of a vehicle..”. …”no matter what any Big Tech company says, there isn’t a single driverless vehicle on the road today that’s anywhere close to operating at the same capacity as a human driver.”That’s a view the American Trucking Associations disagrees with. “It’s an antiquated argument. If you have a shortage of talent as big as 70,000 drivers short in our industry, you can add as many automated trucks as you want. You’re not going to fill that void,” Spear said.A 2021 report by the Department of Transportation found Autonomous Trucking would add billions of dollars into the economy through its secondary benefits like faster transportation without causing mass layoffs. It concluded that long-haul drivers should be able to find employment as short-haul truck drivers. So the issue of layoffs should not be a significant concern when considering the adoption of automation in long-haul trucking.Alexa Phillips is a student at Pittsburgh Technical College. She’s enrolled in their Robotics and Autonomous Engineering Technologies program.Aurora helped create the program to make sure there would be a pipeline of workers able to service new technology and create new jobs in the field. “We are turning to more automation, to more robotics and stuff, and we need the people who actually understand the systems and the circuits and all of the little components that go into these big things,” Phillips said.The first class of students will graduate from the program this spring. Some will go on to work for Aurora. “As we look at new jobs, things like our remote support specialists or our terminal operators or our automated vehicle technicians, these are all jobs that didn’t exist,” Spear said.“A lot of people say that that Pittsburgh’s going to be the next Silicon Valley. And I really– I agree. And I think it’s already almost there. We have a ton of tech companies, robotics companies moving into our area. And so what we’re doing here at PTC with Aurora is we’re educating and building the future generation of the next workforce.” Robotics Program Coordinator at Pittsburgh Technical College Jay Glaus said.
A Western Pennsylvania company is focused on creating and implementing the driver-less semitruck. It’s a story Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 has been covering over the last week.
We’ve looked at how the tech works, how it’s tested in Pittsburgh, the safety and how the government is overseeing the project.
Now, we’re focusing on the impact to the industry and what it could mean for truckers and their livelihoods.
(For part one of the report, click here. For part two, click here.)
“Everyone relies on trucking. You may not know it when you’re buying groceries, but they got there because of our industry,” Chris Spear, President and CEO of American Trucking Associations, said.
Trucking is a $1 trillion-a-year industry in America. Drivers are essential.
“We’re moving 73% of the economy. We’re 8 1/2 million strong in trucking, which means one in 18 jobs in the United States is trucking-related. The top job in 29 states is trucking related,” Spear said.
Spear is the president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations, representing drivers in all 50 states at the federal level.
He says their industry is staring down a big problem:
“The shortage of talent — We have been for some years now running a deficit of drivers and attracting new talent into the industry,” Spear said.
According to Spear, there’s a shortage of about 70,000 drivers. In the next decade, that shortage is expected to climb to a million.
Aurora Innovations CEO Chris Urmson says safety is a big reason there aren’t enough workers. Those reasons also extend to time away from home and health outcomes.
The hope is autonomous technology could help and take over the long-haul routes. Spear says those jobs are the hardest to fill.
“That’s partly the toughest segment of our industry to serve because you’re away for so long, upwards of three weeks on the road. It also pays the highest, but it has ramifications. Time away from home and your family,” Spear said.
Since 2021, Aurora has been running autonomous routes between Houston and Dallas, as well as El Paso and Fort Worth, logging over a million miles.
Trucks stop at terminals that Aurora built on each end to load and deliver goods for customers.
The trucks drive autonomously but with a safety driver on board, ready to take over at any minute.
Aurora expects they’ll be ready to remove drivers by the end of the year.
If successful, it will be a slow revolution, starting with only a few dozen trucks. Ultimately, it could change the logistics landscapes and shave days off the delivery time for long hauls.
“And what we see this technology enabling through our partners is for freight to get places more safely, more quickly that will allow small farmers to reach further with where they sell their their produce, but when it ultimately also helps people move around cities, it’ll make that easier and safer as well,” Urmson said.
We asked what the government is going to do for the people who don’t have work because of AI taking the place of a truck driver.
Many drivers we spoke with say they’re afraid this is taking their jobs.
I want to get a bunch of my guys together and go picket that company,” Donald Hicklin, a driver from Charlotte, North Carolina, said. “It’s going to be a chain reaction. You’re going to have other companies coming up — and they’re going to repeat the technology — and it’s going to put us out of a job.”
The Teamsters are a large trucking union, representing tens of thousands of drivers.
They sent Pittsburgh’s Action News 4 this statement. It reads in part:
“There should always be a well-trained and properly licensed person in the front seat of a vehicle..”. …”no matter what any Big Tech company says, there isn’t a single driverless vehicle on the road today that’s anywhere close to operating at the same capacity as a human driver.”
That’s a view the American Trucking Associations disagrees with.
“It’s an antiquated argument. If you have a shortage of talent as big as 70,000 drivers short in our industry, you can add as many automated trucks as you want. You’re not going to fill that void,” Spear said.
A 2021 report by the Department of Transportation found Autonomous Trucking would add billions of dollars into the economy through its secondary benefits like faster transportation without causing mass layoffs.
It concluded that long-haul drivers should be able to find employment as short-haul truck drivers. So the issue of layoffs should not be a significant concern when considering the adoption of automation in long-haul trucking.
Alexa Phillips is a student at Pittsburgh Technical College. She’s enrolled in their Robotics and Autonomous Engineering Technologies program.
Aurora helped create the program to make sure there would be a pipeline of workers able to service new technology and create new jobs in the field.
“We are turning to more automation, to more robotics and stuff, and we need the people who actually understand the systems and the circuits and all of the little components that go into these big things,” Phillips said.
The first class of students will graduate from the program this spring. Some will go on to work for Aurora.
“As we look at new jobs, things like our remote support specialists or our terminal operators or our automated vehicle technicians, these are all jobs that didn’t exist,” Spear said.
“A lot of people say that that Pittsburgh’s going to be the next Silicon Valley. And I really– I agree. And I think it’s already almost there. We have a ton of tech companies, robotics companies moving into our area. And so what we’re doing here at PTC with Aurora is we’re educating and building the future generation of the next workforce.” Robotics Program Coordinator at Pittsburgh Technical College Jay Glaus said.
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