you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 8 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (9 children)

But on the flip side, you also have to consider how much cheaper, well, literally everything, will be when it doesn't cost $30 an hour to move a product from one place to another?

Everything will cost so much less that Universal Basic Income wouldn't need to be anywhere near as high as it is right now to be "living wage".

Like it or not - self driving trucks are coming. We need to find a way to adjust to that. The timeline for when is probably not "when will the tech be ready" but rather "when will society be ready". I'm pretty sure if you deployed self driving trucks today, pitchforks would come out and those trucks would be blocked by civil disobedience.

Slow it down too much though, and you'll put your whole economy at a global disadvantage. A first would country could easily become a third world one by refusing to allow autonomous trucks. Autonomous trucks already exist and not just on pristine highways — for example they're used on mine sites with no roads at all — https://thewest.com.au/business/mining/bhp-autonomous-trucks-collide-at-jimblebar-iron-ore-mine-in-pilbara-ng-b881139676z

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 18 child comments
  • [–] 24 points 2 years ago

    Everything will cost so much less that Universal Basic Income wouldn’t need to be anywhere near as high as it is right now to be “living wage”.

    Assuming companies would pass the saving to their customers, which is usually not the case these days.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 8 points 2 years ago

    Oh you sweet summer child. There is zero chance that the cost savings will be passed on to consumers. In fact, I'll bet prices go up after an initial plateau.

    At first, profits will rise due to the lack of $30/hr costs - and shareholders will celebrate the innovation.

    Then when the migration to self-driving semis is complete and that profit levels out, shareholders will be pissed that the profits don't continue to rise - so prices will rise again.

  • source
  • parent