RoboTruckers: The Double Threat of AI
for Low-Wage Work
Karen Levy
Cornell University
�RoboTruckers�The Double Threat of AI for Low-Wage Work����Karen Levy karen.levy@cornell.edu�Cornell University @karen_ec_levy
Your 60-second trucking primer
Truckers as human infrastructure
“If you got it, a truck brought it”
2 million long-haul truckers
Political economy of trucking
Deregulation 🡪 high competition
Driver shortage and turnover
Trucking culture
95% male, autonomous, resistant, romantic
Trucking as manhood
“Ammonia as an inhalant is useful, but its effect is not lasting. Some drivers are even reported to resort to sipping urine in emergencies.”
National Safety Council Report 1936
(reported in Derickson 2013)
“I resent the need for a black box on my truck to track what I am doing. I am a safe and honest driver.”
“I feel that I do not need a federal baby-sitter in the truck.… I know when I am tired and need to sleep without a black box to tell me when to sleep.”
“You know who pays the payments on that truck? Me. Who pays the insurance? Me. Who pays the cargo and liability? Me. Who pays for the fuel? Me. I’m not putting shit in my truck … where were you when I was behind on my payments because I had engine trouble … who paid that? Me. If I have an issue … who took care of it? Me. Wasn’t the government. … You can kiss my ass.”
Undermining autonomy
12:57 pm Firm: Are you headed to delivery?
1:02 pm Firm: Please call.
2:33 pm Firm: What is your ETA to delivery?
2:34 pm Firm: Need you to start rolling.
2:35 pm Firm: Why have you not called me back?
3:25 pm Driver: I can’t talk and sleep at the same time.
3:37 pm Firm: Why aren’t you rolling? You have hours and are going to service fail this load.
3:44 pm Firm: You have hours now and the ability to roll – that is a failure when you are sitting and refusing to roll to the customer.
3:51 pm Firm: Please go in and deliver. We need to service our customers. Please start rolling. They will receive you up to 11:30. Please do not be late.
4:14 pm Driver: Bad storm. Can’t roll now.
4:34 pm Firm: Weather Channel is showing small rain shower in your area, 1-2 inches of rain and 10 mph winds ???
Levy, K. 2015. The contexts of control: Information, power, and truck-driving work. Information Society 31: 160-74.
“A computer does not know when we are tired, fatigued, or anything else. Any piece of electronics that is not directly hooked up to my body cannot tell me this.” (regulatory comment)
Challenging stamina
Levy, K. 2016. Digital surveillance in the hypermasculine workplace. Feminist Media Studies 16(2): 361-65.
Robot, take the wheel?
What jobs are likely to be automated?
A slope, not a cliff
3 models of integration
(1) the handoff: passing the baton
“If drivers are unshackled from the wheel, they could do order processing, inventory management, customer services and sales.”�- American Trucking Association���“[While the truck drives, humans can] nap and relax, chat with family and friends, learn a second trade, or run a business.”�- Otto product manager
“By taking away the easy parts of his task, automation can make the difficult parts of the human operator’s task more difficult.”
(2) network coordination: divide and conquer
(3) hybridization: the rise of the RoboTrucker
[1]
�
Automation and surveillance as complements
Support:
National Science Foundation
MacArthur Foundation
Sloan Foundation
New America Foundation
Horowitz Foundation
Cornell Center for the Social Sciences
research assistance from Pegah Moradi, Amanda Kaplowitz