Driving home today I saw a truck tire one of the wheels of his trailer out and just keep going. A cement truck got along side him and the passenger was making a bunch of gestures, trying to get the semi driver to notice and pull over, but the dude just kept going.

Watching that scene, it occurred to me that automation may not put an end to the trucker. The guy in that cabin was taking huge risks driving like that and the direct beneficiary of those risks is the company who pays him to haul. That tire probably blew out because the trailer was under-maintained. I'll bet the guy kept going because he was close to his destination and wanted to make a deadline. Freight companies can put drivers into situations where they take big risks and if those risks pay off, the company gets the reward. If they don't pay off, then they can just blame the driver. They can't do that with automation. If they under-maintain an automated truck and it crashes, they are directly, and totally, responsible. IF they program a truck to disregard the law, they are criminally responsible. No canned speech about how "we take safety very seriously" would explain away a reckless decision made by a company running an automated truck. Without a human behind the wheel, there is no reasonable doubt when it comes to culpability. Freight companies need truck drivers in the same way Wells Fargo needs tellers.