DTranslating big things into small things often helps to understand them. Sometimes it’s the other way around. Commerzbank has recently published a study according to which every second company in Frankfurt sees its existence at risk because of the threat of staff shortages. 85 percent of the companies surveyed stated that they suffered from not being able to find any or at least not enough qualified employees. In distant America the dimensions are different, the problems are similar. Around three quarters of goods transport is carried out by trucks, but supplies are at risk because there are fewer and fewer drivers. And this despite the fact that the salaries for the truckers who pilot the heavy equipment through the states for days are between 75,000 and 125,000 euros per year.
In particular, long periods of absence from home are proving to be increasingly demotivating. A typical long-distance driver is on the road for five days every week, while road train drivers on ultra-long-haul routes sometimes don’t see their families for four weeks. This gives the idea of having trucks steered by computers a meaning of its own. In addition to the engineers’ pursuit of new technical territory, of course. And perhaps also the question itself of whether cars have to be driverless.
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