California proposes to allow testing of driverless heavy-duty trucks

[Mawspam2]

9. As someone who drove trucks for 15 years...

...I can tell you this, anyone who approves this is unleashing 80,000 pound bombs on their population that WILL KILL hundreds, perhaps thousands of people.

We have seen the destruction of lives by Waymo taxis and moron Tesla owners that let their cars do the driving. Now go from a 3,000 pound car to a 80,000 pound truck to see the kind of death and destruction you'll achieve.

The last truck I drove had all kinds of automation. Lane departure warning system, collision avoidence (automatic braking) system. Truck Fleeting, where one truck automatically follows another, in the same lane, at a "safe" distance.

On numerous occasions, my truck slammed on the brakes as it approached an overpass, thinking it was about to hit a stopped vehicle.

That truck would react badly when in construction zones, as it was unable to deal with traffic barrels or temporary barriers. Without my intervention, that truck would have been in numerous crashes.

The fleeting feature works, until it dosen't. It can't figure out what to do when cars suddenly swerve into the lane just in front of it.

The self-driving technology is nowhere near ready. The first person I would sue in a wrongful death suit is any government moron who approves this. I'm sure discovery will quickly find a trail of money to trucking companies who just don't give a shit.