One important factor to consider is that this won't happen overnight. Once autonomous trucks actually hit the roads, there will be a long period where the drivers will still have to be behind the wheel. And even then, there is a lot of other work a truck driver does other than drive. My father runs a small trucking business, and according to him, the logistics are a way bigger annoyance than the actual driving. You have to time deliveries, you have to unload the cargo without damaging anything, you have to repair the truck (or call a tow / mobile repair) you have to take photos of any potentially damaged products, you have to make sure there are people there to sign off on a successful delivery, you need to find the right people when nobody knows anything about your delivery, etc... The job sounds pretty cut and dry, but in reality, every delivery has some new issue and the driver is usually the one that ends up dealing with it.

I'm not saying that the job won't be automated eventually, but the actual driving is only a part of the job. And even when the automation begins to happen, I think there will be time for them to transition into new roles.

Partially agree. I think big fleets will be first as soon as the bugs are worked out.

Long haul trucks are loading dock to loading dock, so you don't need the driver to do loading.

Uber is another fleet: they just want to do transport-as-a-service so they HATE drivers as overhead. They have signed up to buy 100,000 Mercedes (future autonomous upgrade). They've indicated interest in 500,000 Teslas.

http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/news/a28508/uber-ord...

http://www.autoblog.com/2015/07/08/uber-tesla-self-driving-c...

Don't leave out Programmers. No barriers to entry. Just a good mind, and an Internet connection. There's millions of people around the world learning to Program. It's cool. It's hip. They all want to learn, and it's getting easier yearly. And you don't even need to go to college.

I cringe when ever I hear Programmers left of out of the, "Where will these people go." Guys like Willie Brown are alwready wondering what San Francisco is going to do with the new homeless that will be hitting the streets--when this current bubble ends.

Yes, the Rock Star Programmers will always have a job, but that's a minority of you.

Back to University or go and do other jobs ? Create their own companies and new services ? Why would they necessarily end up as homeless on the streets?

For the same reason they haven't already gone to school to get a better job than the one they currently have: they either don't have the money or the mental capability to do it. What makes you think this is going to change?

Erm... online education being now a thing, for one. Them having more resources now after having worked for x years than when they started without education. Them being probably married after a while and therefore having a safety net inside the family to be able to take some time off to learn new skills. Many things are plausible.

Wow, you have an incredibly naïve and rosy view of what life is like for the lower and working classes. Maybe you should try meeting some of them in person and seeing what their lives are really like instead of spouting this BS.

I come from a lower class family so im not sure why you assume i dont know what i am talking about.

You say that like anyone can just up and go back to university or simply create their own service (presumably some new, inventive one because the one they just had is already nearly perfected by machines). Neither of those things are especially easy to do with a decent paycheck, and these people wouldn't even have that.

Not just anyone, but the possibility is there. Stories of business owners who made it starting from nothing are not rare (obviously many fail as well) - but do not underestimate the resourcefulness of people who have their back against the wall.

The "let them eat cake" solution. If they had the opportunity to go back to university or create their own companies, wouldn't they have done so already?