American Truck Simulator

Self-driving trucks could one day replace 90+% of all highway trucking, according to a new study from the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University.

🚚 The deets: Researchers assessed the impact of autonomous trucking technology currently being tested in Sun Belt states based on different scenarios of deployment.

• If self-driving tech is limited to just the Sun Belt, the researchers predict about 10% of operator-hours would be affected.
• But if it's deployed across the US in all applicable scenarios, up to 94% of operator-hours would be affected. That translates to impacting about 500,000 full-time workers.

✋ Yes, but… To date, most autonomous trucks have been tested in sunny, dry climates like the South/Southwest. But many experts say the challenges posed by rain, ice or snow in the northern US means self-driving tech is likely decades away from fundamentally threatening the labor market.

📸 The big picture: Autonomous-driving tech has progressed in the US in recent years, but slowly. 

• Most vehicles manufactured today have some form of driver-assistance tech focused on safety, but they still require drivers to remain engaged (i.e., the third of six defined levels of autonomous driving).