Driverless trucks: Taking out the human element

While the global mining industry is in the doldrums at the moment there are still some fantastic innovations going on like the driverless trucks in this video.

There is no doubt about it, running any kind of dumptruck can be a monotonous, boring and repetitive job, which can often lead to fatigue and in the worst case scenario has led to operators falling asleep at the wheel. It’s not surprising then to find out that considerable work has been put into fully automated dumptrucks like the Cat 793F’s which feature in this promotional video from Caterpillar, which was shot in the famous Pilbara mining region in Western Australia. It’s a fact of life that we are seeing the human element removed from so many situations these days. This is an interesting video and it’s all very clever stuff, but it does make you wonder where will it all end and how many people will have no job as a result of this form of technology. [youtube width="725" height="344"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-TqmZOaABk[/youtube]