By now, everyone has heard of autonomous cars and the quest by many companies to get them on the road. At the same time, we hear about autonomous buses, trucks, and, even, cargo ships. Now we can add bulldozer to the list of vehicles that will not require a driver at some point.
Built Robotics, a start up company, has recently unveiled a bulldozer that requires no driver. This is one of the first forays, that I am aware of, into the mainstream construction industry. Operating earth moving equipment is a dirty and dangerous job, at time even fatal. It is quite obvious the dangers that can lurk on any type of construction site. Anytime monotonous work is automated, safety tends to go up.
Here is a video that was released by the company on their Youtube channel.
Over the past few weeks, we saw reports that Waymo, Google's self driving car division, is going to have a fleet of autonomous taxis on the streets in a city in Arizona by the ends of the year. This is the most aggressive time line I have seen although not the only one. Elon Musk stated earlier this year that he will drive from LA to NYC in a car totally on Autopilot mode.
Regardless of whether these targets are met, the outcome is clear: driving is going to disappear. The last year witnessed the autonomous world move past theory. Now, we are quickly approaching implementation. I would say in another year, autonomous vehicles will be something fairly common in sense we do not find them "alien". While it will take the better part of a decade before we see these vehicles making up the vast percentage of units on the road, we can see the acceleration process already starting. Transportation for hire, long haul trucking, and other cargo moving services will be the first areas we see this technology penetrate.
I am going guess that kids just starting elementary school will not even be given the option of getting a driver's license. By the time they reach that age, driving will be akin to the rotary phone.