If you want the trucking life, nows the time.

[tx2sturgis]

Yeah, I'm not a driver but what I've been reading is that it has become a horrible profession.

I would not call it 'horrible' but it is nowhere near as good as it was when I started. And it used to actually be enjoyable...but most of the enjoyment is also gone.

I'm retired now...but I've had SIX serious and un-solicited job offers from people who want me in one of their trucks. 

I've paid my dues, let the new guys (and gals) deal with it.

[Rabbit]

Another difficult-to-automate scenario is hijacking. It's already somewhere between terribly hard and impossible to program in the correct response to everything that might happen "naturally" on the road; imagine how difficult an engineer's job becomes when equally-intelligent Bad Guys set themselves to invent "unnatural" situations. Automation doesn't have any common sense; all you need to do if you want to stop a driverless truck and pillage the cargo (as of now, with current technology) is set up a flimsy roadblock in the middle of nowhere and wait. Or, maybe repaint the white lines. For that matter, now that I think about it, there are terrorism possibilities in this sort of thing as well. Stop a fuel tanker, slap on a detonator, then let it drive on to its (likely urban) destination.

No, truck drivers aren't going away anytime soon.

[tx2sturgis]

Yep...when pressed, most of the 'movers and shakers' in truck automation fully admit that the 'steady state' 'lane keeping' or 'cruise' automation breaks down under challenging conditions: construction, gridlocked traffic, wind, heavy rain, snow, ice, thick fog, missing lane markers, sensor failure (damage or blockage) mechanical and electronic problems like brake failure or GPS failure, cattle in the road, weaving motorists, accident happening right in front of the truck, any number of unusual events that can't be predicted or programmed for.

Even $100 million dollar airliners with cutting edge autopilot have a number of situations that can happen where the auto-pilot disconnects, and you sure as hell better have a pilot ready who knows that the heck he needs to do.

[Weldman]

I've heard the DOT is rasing the standard back up with physical requirements. If you're on the border of being disqualified due to physical ailments, now is the time to get in and try it out.

Just got my MEC last week to drive my personal semi when I unload the camper off the back and it was easy to pass.

[JD GUMBEE]

Just got my MEC last week to drive my personal semi when I unload the camper off the back and it was easy to pass.

??? If registered non-commercial, why did you need your med cert??

Which state is it tagged in?