Self-driving trucks: what's the future for America's 3.5m truckers?

© Haiyin

Driverless vehicles appear to be one of the new breed of disruptive technologies that is most likely to have a genuine impact on the freight and logistics industry. The thought is that driverless trucks could deliver huge savings to the freight industry – a Morgan Stanley report has put it at as much as $168bn, a large portion of which would come through savings on drivers’ wages, and is pertinent given that warnings about a looming severe shortage of drivers persist. Indeed, one Silicon Valley start-up from a group of ex-Google executives is preparing to offer retrofitting driverless technology on trucks at a cost of $30,000 per truck, while the average annual driver’s wage is $40,000.