Yep, I always thought that driverless trucks will come before that kind of cars. Better safety, lower costs, faster shipping, because there are no driver breaks.
I always wonder what the world will be like with thousands of truck and taxi drivers out of work. I know the same could be said for banking clerks (ATM), checkout clerks (automated checkout counters) etc. But I suspect the demographic is quite different.
Maybe we went through something similar when digging machines replaced people with shovels.
My direct interaction with the profession would indicate you'll still need a dude sitting in the cab, because no one trusts anyone WRT inventory control and you still need human body to load/unload.
The main difference is instead of requiring the coveted commercial drivers license plus or minus hazmat certs, you'll have a grunt laborer who optimistically knows how to count in english and can handle a pallet jack and/or electric forklift.
Well looking on the bright side, there'll be a lot of new jobs created as gas station attendants for filling all the automated vehicles... until that gets automated.
