It's time for a little R&R...
Below is a modest compilation of trucker friendly research, organizations, and resources. Many of the recommendations are easy to listen to and easy to access for drivers while you're on the road.
This will keep you busy for a while. Enjoy!
Organizations and Podcasts
A Drivers Perspective
A Drivers Perspective is a driver focused advocacy organization founded by Will Cook. The goal of his project is to help develop a sense of community amongst all professional drivers and keeping them informed of trends in the transportation industry, driverless trucks included. Cook had also founded America Without Drivers, which was the first known trucker founded organization that is rallying drivers and pressing legislators for answers regarding the consequences of autonomous trucking. It later evolved into A Drivers Perspective. You can find him at the link below.
Link: ADriversPerspective.com
X: @willcookonx
The Alliance for Independent Workers
AiW focuses on organizing rideshare drivers who are being affected by the development of autonomous taxi services in California. Granted, this is a completely different market than trucking, but the core technologies and issues are the same.
Here's their Facebook page. You can also find them by their hashtag
The Voice of Gord Podcast and Autonomous Truckers on Substack
Gord Magill is a master driver with 27+ years of experience, from hauling on ice roads in Canada to land trains in Australia to the ice trucks at Burning Man. These days he's focused on bridging the gap between academia, regulators, and drivers, especially regarding issues related to technology in trucking. Gord's a fantastic writer. He has a Substack page aptly titled Autonomous Truckers that dives into this issue in depth. He's also writing a book titled End of the Road: Inside the War on Truckers, which includes this topic. Stay tuned.
You can find him here:
The Voice of Gord - Spotify
https://autonomoustruckers.substack.com/
The Over The Road Podcast with Paul Marhoefer
Over The Road was produced by Radiotopia. and Overdrive Magazine It is an absolutely fantastic series the covers the spirit of trucking, from its beginning all the way to autonomous trucks with plenty of characters and heartwarming stories peppered in-between. It's made in the style of Studs Terkel by focusing on specific stories of real people to get at the broader zeitgeist of the industry and its unique culture. The last episode "The Road Ahead" dives into the future of trucking at the Great American Truck Show in Dallas, Texas.
You can find it on Spotify at Over the Road
The Michael Lombard Podcast
Michael Lombard is a relative newcomer to covering autonomous trucking. He's primarily focused on health, fitness, and nutrition issues with truckers. But this USMC veteran is fierce about protecting the communities he serves, which extends to the threats posed by autonomous trucking. Ooh-Rah!
You can find him here on Spotify.
The Industrial Revolutions
The Industrial Revolutions is a history podcast for the future. It is meticulously well researched and dives into the successes and failures of how prior generations dealt with new world changing technologies. This podcast couldn't be more relevant if it tried.
All 60 plus episodes can be found here.
Audio Book Recommendations
There isn't much in the way of audiobooks that strictly focuses on trucking and artificial intelligence but there's plenty that nips at the edges of the issue and dives into applicable concepts. Good suggestions will be added to the list below!
*Pro tip: If you decide to use Audible, buy multiple credits instead of paying outright, it will save a ton of money.
The Technology Trap by Carl Benedkit Frey
The Technology Trap covers the relationship between business, workers, and technology all the way from the Roman Empire to autonomous trucking and artificial intelligence. It also digs into policy solutions that were successful in preventing the worst aspects of technological disruptions from prior eras, which may be relevant today. The key point of the book is that the benefits of A.I. must be shared if the technology is to be accepted.
Data Driven by Karen Levy
Karen Levy's dissertation on the use of technology in trucking is currently the most direct academic work on the subject. Levy makes the claim that full automation in the trucking industry isn't likely to run off a cliff, but a gradual slope. In the meantime, drivers need to be wary of the new methods being used to turn truckers into robots before being replaced by robots.
The Economic Singularity by Calum Chase
In this book, Calum Chase takes us into the bleak unknown, while also highlighting issues that are laying right on the surface of Artificial Intelligence. If you can sum his argument up: by 2040 our computing power will be 8,000 times what is was in 2018. By 2050 it will be 1,00,000 times more powerful. At that point, there won't be much that A.I. can't do and all bets are off. Hopefully, we'll find a way to avoid his worst predictions.
A World Without Work by Daniel Susskind
Daniel Susskind of Oxford University's Balliol College makes the case that artificial intelligence will continually chip away at jobs and drive- up unemployment rates, upsetting 300 years of historical precedent since the first industrial revolution. His argument is cautiously optimistic by claiming that we should embrace that change and hopefully flourish as a result. If all goes well, that is.
A.I. Superpowers by Kai Fu Lee
Kai Fu Lee founded Google China and is one of the most influential people in tech. Lee outlines the difference between American and Chinese business culture. He also digs into the basics of machine learning, autonomous vehicles, and issues associated with the policy solutions like Universal Basic Income. Buckle up!
The Devil is Here in These Hills by James Green
Just over 100 years ago, 10,000 coal miners ran into the hills of West Virginia and fought a war against the local government and the coal companies. The resulting conflict was the largest to occur on American Soil since the Civil War. Coal mining is obviously a far cry from modern trucking but the financial and management issues that miners had to deal with then are in some cases similar to what drivers have to face today. People can only handle so much pressure, debt and threats to their livelihood.