September 28, 2015 Self-driving vehicles might seem like a plot device in a science fiction movie — think iRobot or Total Recall – but actually, they’re already here. Google and other companies have been testing driverless vehicles for several years, and some aspects of semi-autonomous vehicle technology, like automatic parallel parking, are available in some new cars.
Analysts expect autonomous vehicle technology to hit the roads big time in the next few years, which could signal major changes for the shipping and transportation industries and supply chains. Earlier this year, Daimler became the first manufacturer to be granted a road license for an autonomous heavy-duty truck. The trucking industry –critical to U.S. Postal Service operations – could benefit from these technologies. Autonomous vehicles are designed to improve safe driving, and testing indicates they are involved in fewer accidents. The technology is expected to cut down on fuel costs by facilitating more efficient control of speed, including rate of braking and acceleration.
That’s not all. The technology could enable automated truck convoys, which would consist of a driver in a lead truck setting the pace and taking over the steering, acceleration, and braking of a line of trucks following closely behind. Drivers in those trucks can rest until their respective turns to lead, thus improving productivity.
Self-driving vehicles could take on the tasks of loading and unloading goods in warehouses. Kiva, a warehouse automation system that Amazon acquired in 2012, uses autonomous vehicle technology to transport movable shelves, retrieving products for the worker who keyed them into the system.
Autonomous technology could also revolutionize last mile delivery. DHL said in a 2014 report that it could eventually use specialized driverless cars to deliver packages to its centrally located, self-service Packstations. The company even suggested that one day the Packstations themselves could act as driverless cars, traveling across town delivering directly to wherever the customer is.
Some analysts believe that in the future, customers could rent shared autonomous vehicles and pre-program destinations for daily deliveries. Such a service would allow small businesses to offer a delivery service without having to maintain a fleet of delivery vehicles.
Since the truck can drive itself on highways, Freightliners says, the driver can occupy himself with other pressing business.
Driverless cars still face many hurdles – cost, technology, and regulatory, to name a few – before they are commonplace on U.S. highways. However, the technology has already shifted from hypothetical to reality, and it promises major changes in industries critical to the Postal Service. How do you see this technology changing the delivery market?
source: USPS OIG, No Driver Needed?
Stupid management, and a stupid Congress that actually believes them, might take our jobs but driverless vehicles aren’t going to. Is there going to be a robot in the truck which carries the parcel to the door? Is the robot even going to know where to put it? Some boxes are behind the house, some are on the side, some are even in the bushes. Some people want all packages to be delivered to a side porch, some want them at the back door, some want a notice left. All neighborhoods are different, and packages are handled accordingly. It’s such a stupid idea that the USPS will be able to do this without people that it’s silly to even think about. Clearly whoever wrote this article has nothing to do with the postal service and has no idea what delivering mail is like. It will never work. I’m not sure the USPS will never try it, because postal management is constantly doing something more stupid than they did the day before, but the idea of automated driving and delivering is ridiculous. Besides, the USPS can’t even afford to buy new clusterboxes; where are they going to come up with the money to buy a fleet of 400,000 automated vehicles? Automated vehicles may be in the test phases already, but as far as mail delivery, it is DEFINITELY science fiction.
How about a automated discipline system? When a Postal employee is bad, the machine can go after the lazy employee and punish them. All the machine must do is be set to yell and scream at the awful employee. Now if they could only get the machine to drink coffee and eat donuts!
Agreed, however the machines must also be trained to speak, (1)file a grievance, (2) In a staff meeting before the meeting, (3) Here’s your letter of Warning (L.O.W.) for being away from your assignment (Restroom break) (4) She don’t need twelve weeks, she only gave birth yesterday, send her for a fitness for duty, (5) Leave this work for Tour 1, 2, or 3 we’re going out of here. (6) Finally leave the container in the corner and we can process it the next day. (6) A driver is instructed to take a truck of mail around town for several days and suddenly we need overtime to finish this work. We will get a bonus if this mail is done today, so a call for mandatory overtime is in effect. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, bonus time. Real Talk!
SO WHY NOT JUST GET RID OF ALL JOBS EXCEPT IF YOU WORK AT BURGER KING OR WALMART. GREAT COUNTRY WE LIVE IN.
USPS Management-No Manager’s Needed?
Self-mimicking Managers might seem like a plot device in a science fiction movie — think iRobot or Total Recall – but actually, they’re already here. Google and other companies have been testing the self mimicking Manager for several years, and some aspects of semi-autonomous Management technology, like automatic parallel thinking, are available in some new automated Managers.
Analysts expect autonomous Management technology to hit the offices big time in the next few years, which could signal major changes for the shipping and transportation industries and supply chains. Earlier this year, Daimler became the first manufacturer to be granted an office license for an autonomous Manager. The Management industry –critical to U.S. Postal Service operations – could benefit from these technologies. Autonomous Managers are designed to improve decency and improve relations with employees, and testing indicates they are involved in fewer incidents of harassment and tampering with operations due to their inability to think . The technology is expected to cut down on costs by facilitating more efficient control of logical thinking and basic decency to other human beings, including just being nice and gaining some level of respect.
That’s not all. The technology could enable automated Supervisors, which would consist of a Manager in a lead office setting the pace and taking over the steering, acceleration, and braking of a line of Supervisors following closely behind. Managers in those offices can rest until their respective turns to lead, thus improving productivity.
Self-driving Supervisors could take on the tasks of herding and directing employees in warehouses. Kiva, a warehouse automation system that Amazon acquired in 2012, uses autonomous Manager technology to transport other Supervisors , retrieving coffee for the Manager who keyed them into the system.
Autonomous Manager’s could also revolutionize last mile delivery. DHL said in a 2014 report that it could eventually use specialized driverless Supo\ervisors to deliver donuts to its centrally located, self-service Management meeting superstation. The company even suggested that one day these superstations themselves could act as driverless cars, traveling across town delivering donuts directly to wherever the human Manager’s are.
Some analysts believe that in the future, Managers could rent shared autonomous vehicles and pre-program destinations for daily donut deliveries. Such a service would allow managers to offer a delivery service without having to maintain a fleet of delivery vehicles???
Well you can tell that the author has no idea and has never carried mail. Let me enlighten you. We are constantly as carriers, have pressures apply to us from our supervisors to run. Run run run run run. It’s not about being safe, although they preach that just for show. It’s hurry up, hurry hurry hurry hurry so we can add more stops to your route. The more stops you can carry in eight hours, the less routes we need and the more money we could save by not hiring more employees. The problem is. It takes time to deliver mail. I’ve been inspected on the route I’m on four times already. All four times I was at my first mailbox between 915 and 930 in the morning. The inspectors sat in the seat behind me in the truck. I did everything I was supposed to do in a timely fashion. My route came up to nine hours long each time. They have yet to adjusted to eight hours. Instead every time I leave the office late and explain to my supervisor who was one of the inspectors, I was leaving more than an hour late and won’t be to my first stop until 1030. My route is over nine hours long and I will need two hours now of overtime to carry it, they denied my overtime. Instead they preach, and I kid you not, you have under time. And every time I have to call them up in the afternoon to explain to them I still need two hours to finish my route. 90% of the routes in our zone are the same way. We don’t want to be there for 10 hours every day delivering mail. We would like to have a life and go home and live it. However, management purposely over burdens are out trying to make us run faster than humanly possible. Now imagine you have to slow down while you’re driving to a constant speed, and not be able to push it like you want to see you can get home before dark. How in the world are self driving automatic car is going to increase our speed? This technology will not work in the post office.