It surprises me that robotaxis are concentrated on when highway self driving is easier and probably more valuable.

Eh, isn't the driver shortage an entirely self-inflicted problem by having them wait around for literal hours instead of actually driving.

> In fact, according to one study by the ATRI, over 80 percent of drivers run out of available hours due to detention time, with an average of only 6.5 hours out of 11 available hours spent on the road. Many of those drivers also experienced wait times longer than six hours at some point. [1]

Granted, if I was running a warehouse I'd love to have a line of truckers waiting (for free) to un/load but that doesn't make it efficient.

[1]: https://www.rtsinc.com/articles/reducing-truck-driver-detent...

lead truck looses power while merging from one major highway into another in heavy traffic....

following truck looses power in the same situation

ice,, water, oil, on hills, and jack knifing

high winds, getting pulled over by police

second truck gets passed by someone who slows way down and starts to drive eraticaly...

parking?fueling?

et fucking cetera

How often do you have multiple trucks going the exact same route at the exact same time?

If this were for transit between logistics hubs, this is just a less efficient version of trains. The one advantage of trucks over trains is their flexibility - the truck can go anywhere, unless of course it doesn't have a driver.

I suppose one driver could be driving both to one location and then keep going with an empty truck to a second location, but while that all is happening the one truck is not making any money. This only gets worse as you add more. It also doesn't really have any advantage over a double trailer.