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SIGALARM | 9 years ago

sounds like the self-driving trucks would need to be protected by security teams, otherwise they may be susceptible to out of work pirates.

discuss

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tlb|9 years ago

You can estimate the impact.

Take the fraction of truck drivers that will become pirates

Multiply by the number of trucks that an average pirate can hijack, deliver the merchandise to a reseller of stolen goods, get paid, and launder the money before getting caught.

Divide by how many shipments a truck driver currently makes per year.

And that's an estimate of the fraction of merchandise that will be pirated.

I suspect the answer is no more than 1%, in which case it is absorbable along with other kinds of lossage.

monkmartinez|9 years ago

This really needs more attention/consideration. Self-driving anything seems like a ripe target, as the perceived "harm" is to a corporation not a human driver/operator. That is, theives will not have to hurt anyone to get the goods.

topkai22|9 years ago

This seems like it has already been "solved" by trains- moving targets are hard, cargo is anonymous, stationary targets are in semi-secured railyards, and shrinkage is part of the cost of doing business.

Who wants to hijack a truck and find its full of breakfast cereal?