This is the second episode in a six-part video series about the future of work. Follow the series at vox.com/shiftchange.
Self-driving semi trucks are coming to a road near you. Sooner rather than later, packages will be delivered without any humans involved. That’s stoked fears about the dramatic changes to one of America’s most common jobs.
The 3.5 million truck drivers in the US won’t lose their jobs in one sudden shift. But trucking technologies already use artificial intelligence to complete some tasks and allow human workers to complete others. As Cornell’s Karen Levy has written in detail, that means the early days of automated trucking will involve a gradual change in the division of labor between man and machine.
A lot of truckers are worried about what that change will mean for their own independence and privacy. Legislation set to take effect in December 2017 will require that all American truck drivers equip their vehicle with an electronic logging device — ELD for short. These small computers monitor speed, location, and driving schedules, and report that information back to an employer or a third-party monitoring service. According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, these devices can and will increase safety by more closely monitoring driver fatigue.
But the ELDs are also seen as a gateway to more intrusive monitoring technologies, like SmartCap’s EEG-monitoring hats, or Seeing Machines’ computer vision-equipped inward facing cameras. And for truckers, privacy issues are especially divisive, because their trucks often serve as workplace, home, and vehicle when they are out on the road.
Watch the video above to learn more about how the future of workplace surveillance will change trucking in America.
