Stories I Should Have Told Sooner
Up Front: I am opposed to anything driverless that has the potential of injury or death.
One of my relatives is heavily involved with Driverless Electric Vehicles (DEV). She reports multiple efforts are moving at full speed ahead to market DEVs for rental cars, Uber, Lift, delivery of merchandise, and many other applications.
In tongue-in-cheek discussion with my wife, I said I envisioned a whole series of movies and TV shows centered around DEVs. Think about bank robbers hurriedly getting into a waiting DEV that takes them directly to the police station. How about DEVs being used in high-speed police pursuits that run out of electricity.
Imagine an expectant mother, in a rush to get to the hospital NOW, getting into a DEV that is soon filled by newly graduated nurses who deliver the eight-pound baby boy and he gets “Dev” for a first name. Hey, the possibilities are endless!
A career truck driver I know shares my critical view of Driverless Trucks. Many readers may not be aware that driverless eighteen-wheelers are already on Texas and Arizona highways. These trucks travel on straight highways for up to 400 miles. I ask these simple questions: Will driverless trucks stop to help a one-armed veteran change a tire? Will these trucks stop at a truck stop to buy a gift for a waiting six-year-old girl? Will a driverless truck call 911 to report a nine-car crash? Finally, will driverless trucks be required to take annual physical exams to help ensure public safety and timely delivery of priority freight?
Hold on to your cell phone. As you read this, freight trains three to four miles long are traveling up to 70 miles per hour in our cities and towns with a crew of only two—engineer and conductor. The train will have several locomotives at the front (called a “consist”), usually with a locomotive in the middle and a helper locomotive pushing from the rear. The train will often be Inter-Modal: fully loaded truck semi-trailers stacked two deep on low-cut, gondola-like rail cars.
For the record: I still have in my DNA the smell of creosote ties, the sound of three locomotive horn blasts before each traffic crossing, and lingering respect for an uncle and two cousins who were locomotive engineers.
The railroad companies are implementing money-saving, bottom-line boosting procedures that should scare everyone. Here are just a few: a) Trains are getting absurdly long—miles long. b) Board rooms are planning on dropping the conductor—leaving one-person trains. Conductors now have an impossible schedule—sometimes 11 straight days and are subject to report within four hours if they are called to fill in during days off! c) Dispatchers are now dispatching not one, not two, but three trains at a time. Seasoned observers say it’s just a short matter of time before major train wrecks happen. d) The four major U. S. railroad companies (Union Pacific, Norfolk Southern, CSX Transportation, and Burlington Northern Santa Fe) are seriously considering Driverless Trains!
Hey, let’s go all the way—driverless school buses, golf carts, fire trucks, police cars, EMT vehicles, hearses, Indy 500, Nascar races. What are the former drivers going to do—cut each other’s lawns?
Yes, I am very critical about this growing madness that sacrifices public safety upon the altar of the bottom line.