140,000 new local jobs … with automated trucks
Ike shows how with an interactive story map
By: Paul Goodman
How will self-driving cars and trucks disrupt our economy and impact jobs? That’s one of the key questions that everyone from start-ups to presidential candidates to fake news outlets are asking about automation.
San Francisco-based Ike is making progress on that question and just open-sourced an economic model demonstrating that their approach to automated trucks could add 140,000 local trucking jobs to the economy by 2030, stemming the potential loss of the 210,000 over the road jobs that could be replaced by automation in that time. From their announcement:
Automated trucks can help shift difficult long haul jobs to short haul roles, keeping drivers closer to home and making use of their skills and expertise where it matters. Dr. Charles Hodgson’s analysis suggests Ike’s approach could create nearly 140,000 new local truck driving jobs by 2030.
Ike used Mapbox to build a fully interactive story map that combines maps, narrative, charts, raw data, and diagrams to illustrate how autonomy will affect trucking jobs.
Ike builds tech that lets Class 8 tractor-trailer trucks drive safely and reliably on the interstate highway system without a driver.
Behind their economic study is the reality that it is very difficult to automate of many of the tasks involved in shipment pickup and drop-off:
Trucks powered by Ike’s technology will focus on highway driving, operating only in the simplest and most structured environment. As intriguing as it might seem to automate the entire journey of a truck (and driver), that’s just not realistic any time in the near future. Ride along on a trucker’s journey today and you’ll quickly see that truckers do a lot more than sit in the truck and turn the steering wheel. Especially at the beginning and end of the haul, drivers spend a lot of time out of the truck, using their hands, inspecting the vehicle, and working with other people to ensure everything gets to its destination smoothly, safely, and on time.
For more on Ike’s model, see today’s announcement and click through to their open source model hosted on GitHub.
To build your own story map, visit check out our new Storytelling Template for building interactive storytelling maps with minimal code.
140,000 new jobs … with self-driving trucks was originally published in Points of interest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.