They will always need drivers just to stave off banditry and handle emergencies. What is likely is a single manned truck leading small convoys of automated machines.

> They will always need drivers just to stave off banditry

This is an argument I have never understood.

Do you really think the only thing preventing highway robbers is a driver? If anything, self-driving trucks would likely be able to respond more effectively as they can call police without fearing for their lives.

Is there then a question about how high a priority this robbery will be for the police since no life is in danger? Perhaps trucking companies will have to hire security guards instead of drivers...

What if we did something clever to keep them all in a row, almost like tracks of some sort? /s

I've never heard the banditry argument. But it makes sense. Assuming that some variety of Asimov's laws will apply to self driving trucks they won't be able to defend their cargo (beyond locking and calling for help) it makes sense that there would be some sort of security detail. I wonder if, in the style of Ned Lud, if the robbers will in part be the same displaced truck drivers?

It doesn't really make sense. Banditry requires someone to threaten. If there's no driver and the machine is locked in transit anyway, then all you need are doors where time to cut them open is greater than time for police to arrive and banditry doesn't make sense.

Without people you can also do tricks like electrifying the chassis, so anyone who tries to touch it gets an electric shock.

> Without people you can also do tricks like electrifying the chassis, so anyone who tries to touch it gets an electric shock.

Or a computer vision system connected to a machine gun. (sarcasm)

Yeah I don't think the average taxi driver is some bandit-fighting hero that will save you. Likely they'll raise their hands and hand over their wallet too.