Driverless Trucks Are Here—and They’re Delivering Bags of Doritos (plus backlash aganist robotaxis)

PepsiCo has 41 trucks on the road in Arizona, Texas and Arkansas, bringing the technology into the mainstream

By Esther Fung of The WSJ. Excerpts:

[there are] "35 driverless trucks Pepsi is running on Arizona roads"

"At least nine autonomous-truck companies are operating in Southern and South-Central states, especially Texas, but many still have human monitors at the wheel"

"The truck has multiple cameras mounted at the front and back, as well as radar and lidar equipment that help determine what’s on the road."

"The trucks have had no accidents on public roads so far"

"the driverless trucks are more reliable than human drivers. The on-time arrival performance from driverless trucks reached 99%"

"The driverless trucks perform best when they shuttle back and forth in repetitive trips"

"PepsiCo employs thousands of drivers in the U.S., some represented by unions that have strongly opposed the rollout of autonomous trucks. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters has lobbied several states to require a trained human operator in any autonomous vehicle used to deliver commercial goods."

Also see Robotaxis Are Spreading Across the U.S.—and So Is the Backlash by Sean McLain of The WSJ. Excerpt:

"The Boston City Council has debated putting restrictions on robotaxis, supported by labor unions fearful of losing driver jobs. In Seattle, home of some of the biggest technology companies, robotaxi operators have been hit by protests."

I had a related post recently that touched on this kind of issue. I used a book called The Economics Of Macro Issues by Daniel Benjamin and Roger LeRoy Miller. It mentioned Luddites, people who destroyed industrial equipment in England in the early 1800s. They were weavers who lost their jobs to new machinery. 

See The American Rebellion Against AI Is Gaining Steam. 

Related posts:

When Humanoid Robots Come to a Small-Town Factory: Two-legged robots have taken over a job in a South Carolina auto parts plant. That’s just the start (2026)

AI startups are literally paying people to fold their laundry (or perform similar chores) (2025)

"Companies such as Encord, Micro1, and Scale AI have launched paid “data collection” programs aimed at generating real-world video datasets for robotic learning." 

America’s Newest Auto Plant Is Full of Robots. It Still Needs the Human Touch: Hyundai’s sprawling complex in Georgia illustrates advanced manufacturing’s balance between people and machines (2025) 

No, AI Robots Won’t Take All Our Jobs: Instead, they will boost productivity, lower prices and spur the evolution of the labor market (2025) (it also has links to 14 other related posts from before 2024)

IBM CEO Says AI Has Replaced Hundreds of Workers but Created New Programming, Sales Jobs: The tech company promises higher total employment as it reinvests resources toward roles like software development (2025)

Technological Disruption in the Labor Market (2025)

Why AI Might Not Take All Our Jobs—if We Act Quickly (2025)

Some good news on productivity (2025) (AI is mentioned)

Some economics of A.I. (2025) 

The AI-Generated Population Is Here, and They’re Ready to Work (2024)

Two recent articles on robots and human workers (2024)

Self-service kiosks at McDonald’s are not reducing employment (2024) 

Robots writing science fiction (2024)

Amazon’s New Robotic Warehouse Will Rely Heavily on Human Workers (2024)