Another autonomous trucking startup has weighed in on Andrew Yang’s proposals for the trucking industry, seeking to debunk the Democratic presidential candidate’s ideas about the negative impacts of self-driving technology on truck driver employment.
“The belief that technological advancements of labor-saving equipment will lead to long-term unemployment is a fallacy that can lead to great harm,” Robbie Miller, CEO and chief safety officer of San Francisco-based Pronto, said in a lengthy email to FreightWaves.
Miller became CEO in August after previous chief executive and founder Anthony Levandowski was charged with stealing trade secrets from Google subsidiary Waymo.
His email to FreightWaves followed last week’s publication of an article describing Yang’s policies, which would compensate American workers for job losses stemming from automation, particularly in the trucking industry.
A certain strain of Luddite-ism is embedded in Yang’s proposals, Miller suggested.
“Would it be wise to think we could employ significantly more people if we carried goods on our backs instead of by truck?” he asked.
The history of innovation shows that labor-saving technology does not lead to drops in employment, he said, “but instead produces large benefits to society including higher-paying jobs.”
Trucking issue in 2020 presidential campaign
Potential job losses stemming from automation are a hot button political issue, and many self-driving vehicle companies are unwilling to enter the fray by commenting publicly on Yang’s proposals, which include a tax on self-driving trucking companies.
At the same time, AV companies are taking great pains to defend themselves against the two primary criticisms leveled against self-driving trucks: that they are unsafe and will lead to widespread job losses.
In his email, Miller outlined a series of examples in which labor-saving technology led to “significantly more” people working in the affected industry.
There are more retail jobs in America today than there were before the introduction of e-commerce, he said. The introduction of the ATM led to a comparable increase in bank teller jobs.
“Even though the number of bank workers per bank transaction has dramatically reduced,” Miller said, “the ATMs ushered in an era where the total number of banking transactions increased by so much that, in absolute numbers, more bank tellers were needed.”
Miller said similar increases in employment will likely occur in trucking.
The claim that retail and bank teller jobs have increased with the introduction of new technologies is a controversial topic among economists, with some reports disputing figures of increased employment.
AV profits invested in labor
Diving more deeply into trickle-down theories of autonomous trucking on freight demand and employment, Miller said the cost savings that come from carriers not having to hire drivers will ultimately increase the number of workers in trucking and other sectors of the economy.
That seeming paradox stems from the fact that carriers “may only use new profits from labor savings in one of three ways,” according to Miller.
The first is to expand its business and purchase more autonomous trucks. The second is to invest the profits in another industry, and the third is to sink profits into the carrier’s own consumption (of other goods and services) or distribute to shareholders so they can buy more consumer products and stimulate the economy and job growth with their purchases.
“No matter which option the trucking company chooses, employment will increase,” Miller said, “and it will likely increase in sectors that today’s truck drivers have the skills to do.”
Elastic demand another employment driver
Another labor booster will result as the cost savings generated by autonomous trucking brings down the cost of goods, leading to an increase in consumer purchasing, Miller believes, and “then more people may be employed to move goods than before autonomous trucks were introduced.”
Finally, Miller said, even if consumers don’t respond to a fall in the price, autonomy will result in additional employment.
He cited a hypothetical example in which the price to move a truckload from Los Angeles to Dallas post-autonomy is cut from $1,700 to $1,000 — and not a single additional shipment was made.
The result is that each buyer now has an additional $700 to spend on something else “and so provide increased employment in other lines,” Miller said.
Populist politics
Yang is by any metric an outsider candidate. But in an era dominated by populist politics — and an increasingly fluid Democratic presidential playing field — his policies are gaining traction, giving industry players yet another reason to hone their talking points around the potential social benefits of autonomation.
Pronto is pursuing a more incremental path toward autonomous driving than many of its competitors. Its Copilot system is a Level 2 safety system that uses a camera-based software suite to control braking, throttling and steering.
Zach
This guy needs to look into Andrew Yang because he is literally saying exactly what Andrew is saying: there will be new* jobs created from displacing truck drivers. Andrew is not fighting the progress, but recognizes that the new jobs created will in most cases not be attainable by the people who lost their job.
We need to rethink the way our entire economy works as A.I. increasingly automates away both labor-repetitive AND cognitive-repetitive jobs. Businesses don’t work like they did in the 60’s and 70’s when they sold to mostly regional customers. Now they can sell around the world and don’t need to pay their employees enough to be able to afford the product they are selling. And with the addition of scale-able business structures, they don’t need to hire to attain additional growth.
Andrew wants technological progress, BUT wants to make sure that the people of this nation are not left behind in the process.
Brandon
Andrew Yang doesn’t talk about job loss , he talks more about job misplacement. Truckers will still be out of a job and they will still be somewhat chaos. Don’t fall for this smear.
Jason H
Every industrial revolution replaces something or makes something obsolete. Last time it was horses and animal labor. This time we’re the horse and the writer of this article is just another dumb ass out in the field.
Iain S
Even if there were a bunch of people to fix the trucks it’s not going to be near as many needed to drive the trucks. Even if you pretend more jobs are going to come from self-driving trucks in your industry you must also think of everywhere else that relies on truck drivers. Gas stations and diners and fake massage parlors come to mind.
I’m guessing as CEO you don’t go into a CVS McDonald’s or Walmart often. Just taking a walk in the normal world for a day and it’s obvious jobs are being replaced. And as a CEO you should know that once the software is perfected it’s just a software update away from taking your semi automated trucks to fully automated and expelling thousands if not more.
Andrew
Of course automation leads to more jobs – Yang doesn’t deny that. He’s saying that a huge percentage of the population is going to be pushed out of the workforce, and new jobs will be concentrated to other parts of the country.
Also, the market will value manual labor less and less. And we shouldn’t assume truck drivers are just going to jump into other types of work.
What’s good for GDP and the nation as a whole isn’t always good for the middle of the country. Detroit is an excellent example of this.
Not addressing that there are people suffering as a direct result of automation is the reason Trump was elected in the first place.
Jake
Mr. Ceo, nobody believes your misrepresentations of the truth. Before Andrew Yang helped bring these issues to light you may have succeeded in your campaign of lies. What is funny is your attempt to persuade the uninformed. Kinda reminds me of climate deniers and flat earthers. Automation of the trucking industry will be good for your business but not the millions of people displaced by it. Not just truckers but truck stop workers. Cashiers cooks waitresses janitors mangers all lose their source of income. These are not college educated people and therefore limited to the type of work available. According to the numbers 15% can and will be retrained but where does that leave the other 85%. Jobless hopeless and very dangerous. Mr. Ceo do you believe you will be safe in your mansion when the 85% come for their fair share of your salary that you obtained by getting rid of their jobs? At that it does not matter what the numbers say only what the mob says beating down your door. Instead of trying to deny something we all know as true by calling out Ludites, which were not against technology but the unequal share of wealth created by displacing human with machines, you and all your CEO buddies in transportation and all other areas of the labor market should be supporting Andrew Yang in his attempt to provide a ground floor for people to stand on.This is not just a transportation issue. The next 5 to 10 years we will see a dramatic decrease of employment worldwide. What will billions of people with no resources to buy basic necessities do? Have a nice day.
Joe2boltz
Well stated. But not to worry, the autonomous part wong be secured in our lifetime. I’m a trucker. I drive a new 2018 truck. And all the new trucks do is break down. The new technology is not dependable by any means. Every autonomous truck will need to be followed with a station waggon pulling a trailer of tech parts driven by some tech geek!
335i Guy
Tesla’s ands EV’s in general have a fraction of the moving parts and have to be worked on and break down much less. Also, Tesla is only a few years away from full self driving. You should really look into this more.
Jason
Lol, here is the thing – that CEO said they are going to take the increased profits and give it back to the shareholders – the ones that own stock, WHICH IS NOT THE BOTTOM 60% OF AMERICANS. This DOESN’T benefit the middle or lower class – THE TRUCKERS.
Next – the truck company is going to “spend more money” – are they going to spend more money in the city that the truckers come from? If not, how does the tucker who lost their job have the financial means to move their family across the country to the factory that is making the widgets that the truck company is now buying more of because they were able to lay off more of their workforce.
This CEO sounds like a trickle down joke. Trickle down economics only works for the wealthiest of Americans. There is a reason why there has been a widening of the wealth gap and more and wealth accumulation at the top since the 1970’s and 80’s – trickle down ONLY WORKS FOR SHAREHOLDERS.
John Smith
This CEO clearly does not care about his employees or American workers.