Long-haul trucking via artificial intelligence might have social benefits too.
Are you joking? In a second.”
That was Tucker Carlson’s response to Ben Shapiro way back in 2018 when asked if he would ban autonomous trucks if granted the power.
Autonomous trucking, once derided as “always five years away,” is now here. In April, the freight company Aurora completed construction on an autonomous truck terminal outside of Dallas. This fall it will finish an analogous facility outside of Houston and, in 2024, driverless freight runs between the two hubs will commence. For those taking the Carlsonian view, this technology’s arrival marks a dark social turn. Good jobs for normal men will disappear. Families will fray. Communities will be made worse off.
The standard free-market response is that, actually, creative destruction is good; that jobs may disappear, but others will emerge; and that we’re all made richer when technology improves efficiency. Those economic arguments are sound, but embracing autonomous truck driving doesn’t depend solely on adherence to market principles. Even thinking from Tucker’s own premises, emphasizing worker welfare, autonomous trucks make sense.
Continue reading the entire piece here at The American Spectator
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Jordan McGillis is a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute. Based on a recent report.
Photo by gorodenkoff/iStock
