Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/925196
Voices channel 19 4 | Overdrive | January 2018 Visit Senior Editor Todd Dills' CHANNEL 19 BLOG at OverdriveOnline.com/channel19 Write him at tdills@randallreilly.com. The electronic logging device man- date dominated regulations for which comments were solicited by the U.S. Department of Transportation from October through November. There was no shortage of an- ti-mandate comments. The high number of identical comments filed in support of the mandate led to Fleet Owner magazine wrtiting a story about the use of bots (internet robots) to file the comments. However, DOT did not confirm any such "robot attack," nor did anyone else quoted in the story. The repetitive comments that were singled out were attributed to particular names. An internet search showed many of those names aligning with Werner Enterpris- es, a large fleet that's been using e-logs for a long time. Fred Thayer, the Omaha, Ne- braska-based company's spokesman, said there "was no automation of responding from Werner," though the company was the source of the repeated language. Other repetitive commentary on this docket seemed to be generated in much the same way, with names easily associated with other large-carrier interests in favor of the mandate. Read more about this and the subject of the Trump DOT's regulato- ry review push from the small-carrier perspective in the Nov. 21 blog post. Divine robots and the self-driving truck link Speaking of robots, consider this odd homage paid to them and their role in artificial intelligence. It starts with one meaning of "singularity," or in this case, "The Singularity." It's a tech-development term that refers to the point beyond which the speed at which technology develops overtakes humans' ability to understand it. Or, as a recent story in Wired maga- zine put it: "the day in our near future when computers will surpass humans in intelligence and kick off a feedback loop of unfathomable change." That sentence appeared at the head of a story about Anthony Levandows- ki, the former Google employee who co-founded the Otto self-driving-truck startup later bought by Uber, after which Google launched a high-profile lawsuit against the ride-hailing compa- ny (and now freight broker). At the center of that suit was Levandowski, accused of stealing a large number of files before he left Google's autonomous-driving venture, Waymo, to found Otto. The lawsuit over this alleged theft of trade secrets is ongoing. Wired brought up The Singularity in a story about a church Levandowski founded called "Way of the Future." Its purpose: to "develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence." Levandowski maintains it isn't some weird tax dodge or just a lark, but rather an outgrowth of his sincere belief that machines one day will become smarter than the species who made them. At that point, being in their good graces will be essential for human sur- vival. Hence the necessity of worship, praise, etc., in humanity's effort to be treated by the machines like loved pets rather than, say, mere chattel. There's a part of me that wants to take Levandowski seriously. It all tickles an imagination that has been fed a diet of dystopian sci-fi for its entire 41 years. But there's another, stronger part that keeps in mind just whom we're hearing this from — a human accused of cheating his em- ployer to make bank on a deal with a competitor. The way of the AI future might just portend more of the same — plenty of cheating, lying and crooked practices in the pursuit of fortune and fame. There's plenty enough for the AI godhead to learn from its creators in order to lead the lot of us up to the doorstep of the poorhouse. Closing the case of the ELD-loving 'bot' Those beleaguered bots – getting a bad rap in one situation, worshiped in another.