Trucking Coders, Coding Truckers - Part 26: Another Project (The End)

in #story4 years ago

To the readers: Do not hesitate to indicate spelling and/or style mistakes. You could even make suggestions for where the story should go.


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Another Project

After the complete exoneration from the accident, the NeMo Trucking Software company issued a press release. None of their customers canceled their contract. And they got new customers every week.

Because they had so many trucking companies asking for the NeMo software, Freightliners Trucks upgraded their contract to the maximum: 1,000 systems.

So, the company was doing well and Nestor and Moana started to draw salaries.

The company started to diversify. From one of their first customer, Happy Trucks in Richmond, BC, they bought several trucks and leased them to independent truckers. The deals were such that after five years, the truck would be fully owned by the trucker, as long as he had paid the lease every month.

In 2030, several US states decided to authorize level 4 certified trucks to be driven autonomously on designated freeways. The first such state was Oregon, quickly followed by Texas and Arizona. Nestor and Moana made a trip for Costco Seattle-San Fernando and back, as soon as they could both sleep when crossing Oregon on the I-5.

They documented this trip in detail and issued a new press release.

In June 2030, their software, as adapted by Kurt's company, NeMo Europe, was awarded certification level 4 from ECAAV, the European certification authority. Soon, NeMo Europe signed contracts in all of Europe, and the NeMo Trucking Software company increased its revenue, once again.

In November 2030, Nestor and Moana named Paramvir and Chen co-CEOs and they were no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of their company.

They had another project: Moana was thirty-one years old, and they had decided that it was time for them to start a family.


THE END (at least for now)


Copyright © Vincent Celier, License CC BY-SA


Part 1: An Eventless Trip
Part 2: Nestor, Son of Immigrants
Part 3: Moana, a "demi-tinto" from Punaauia
Part 4: Nestor and Moana Meet Online
Part 5: First Dates
Part 6: First Trip Together
Part 7: Coder Becomes Trucker
Part 8: Trucker Becomes Coder
Part 9: Small Truck and Solar Panels
Part 10: The NeMo Trucking Software Company
Part 11: Getting Help
Part 12: A Different Kind of Company
Part 13: Nestor and Moana Get Married
Part 14: Newlyweds in Tahiti
Part 15: From Level 3 to Level 4
Part 16: Authorized Testing of the Software
Part 17: First Contracts
Part 18: Ready for Certification
Part 19: The Certification Process
Part 20: Very Busy after Certification
Part 21: The Company is Growing
Part 22: Toward European Certification
Part 23: The Accident
Part 24: Preliminary Investigation
Part 25: Complete Exoneration

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I have just caught up with all the episodes. Nice to have a story about engineers with some real technical details. Do you think the technology could bring this sort of automation even sooner? It is moving so fast now. I have yet to ride in a self-driving car, but it is likely to happen in the next few years as they become more common.

Keep up the writing. I need to find a fresh idea to work on.

Do you think the technology could bring this sort of automation even sooner?

I think that self-driving vehicle technology is extremely complicated and will take longer than expected.
In this story, I only spoke about autonomous trucks, because the drivers are professionals, while most car drivers are not. So, it is easier for authorities to allow professional drivers to drive trucks autonomously. Especially if ta special license for autonomous driving is required.

I also think that to reach level 4 will take a long time. And I am not sure that in the next 10 years trucks will be allowed to be driven autonomously without a driver awake in the cabin.

I know a lot of people are sceptical of full automation as there are bound to be circumstances the computer cannot handle, but people are not perfect either. A lot of accidents are due to tired or inattentive drivers. I would be happy if the car could handle long motorway drives where things are more predictable. Country roads are another matter. Getting the driver to take over if the computer struggles is a tricky transition.

A lot of people drive for a living, so they must be concerned.

I second that it's a nice to hear stories about engineers. We never get anything good hehe.