Truckers

Truckers, Video, 13 min. 23 sec., 2020. Produced, written, and directed by Brett Wallace. Filmed by Brett Wallace and Maral Satari. Edited by Brett Wallace and Maral Satari.

Just about everything we own is delivered by trucks. Truck drivers were once known as the mavericks of the open road. But, with the rise of artificial intelligence and the speed of the Amazon economy, truckers are facing changing working conditions, new privacy regulations, and new forms of monitoring. While we see trucks everywhere we go, what’s less visible is artificial intelligence built into the cabs of the 1.8 million long haul truck drivers in the US, a clear example of human-machine coalescence. Trucks have been infiltrated by technology, which tracks the driver and allows the truck to see and react to the road conditions. But, many of the driverless trucks tests we see in the news, like a well known Budweiser test, have been done in ideal driving environments on open roads. Experts like Karen Levy, assistant professor of Information Science at Cornell University, believe we are likely 40 years away from trucks making autonomous dock to dock runs. Juxtaposing interviews with truck drivers and industry workers, with excerpts from technology providers, Truckers explores how new technologies and expectations are reshaping the working conditions, economic provisions, and lives of America’s trucker drivers.