James
Truck drivers can take a momentary sigh of relief as they may not lose their jobs just yet as it has been announced that Uber has halted their development of self-driving trucks. Ubers decision to halt the development of self-driving trucks is unusual. It was only last year that uber celebrated the first ever commercial shipment delivered by a self-driving truck. The self-driving truck managed to drive 120 miles along a highway in Colorado with a packed full of Budweiser beer.
In a statement about the stopping of development ATG head, Eric Meyhofer said: “We believe having our entire team’s energy and expertise focused on [self-driving cars] is the best path forward,”.
Whilst many, mostly from the tech elite hail self-driving cars as an invention that will revolutionize our lives, making life easier, making roads safer many see them as a threat to their livelihoods and don’t want them on the roads and it is easy to see why. Can we really take the word of ruthless tech companies such as Google, Amazon, and Uber who have already proven how ruthless they are towards the smaller fish? Workers unions across America have already started fighting hard to try to restrict them to help lessen the inevitable job losses that self-driving cars will cause. Also, self-driving cars aren’t as safe as tech companies like to make out. This move by Uber to halt their self-driving trucks may have been motivated by a recent crash which resulted in the death of a 49-year-old woman after being hit by an uber self-driving car as she crossed the street in Tempe, Arizona in March. After this incident, Uber chose to suspend all self-driving car tests in all US cities.
