An estimate of 500,000 jobs could be lost across the trucking industry if autonomous trucking is embraced.<\/p>\n
This includes long-haul truckers, and maintenance and support staff assisting truckers in their journey.<\/p>\n
The “transfer hub” model drafted by the University of Michigan with Carnegie Mellon University seeks to introduce automated trucks for the long-haul journey.<\/p>\n
While truck drivers will move the goods from their origination points to truck ports located about 150 miles, automated trucks will be used to carry out the long-haul journey from the titular transfer hubs.<\/p>\n
The driver in turn takes over when the automated truck arrives at a transfer hub close to its destination.<\/p>\n
This format will therefore ensure that humans handle the “more complex suburban-urban segments at both the starting and end points of the journey” while automated trucks handle simple highway driving.<\/p>\n
While people who would be employed at the various transfer hubs will help eliminate the vacant space created by maintenance and support staff, it will however not be enough.<\/p>\n