They put A.I. in my truck. It warns me of everything I do wrong verbally. It reports everything to HQ. It is from a company called Solera. I take offense to this. Am I wrong? What can I do? Anything?
Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do. "Tattling" programs are quickly becoming a staple of any sort of logistical jobs. Companies will parade it around as if it keeps people safe, or it protects the honest employees. It's designed to give them reasons to get rid of you.
You speak the truth.
I know it sucks. And corps are playing with the automation line. They don't want to replace too many jobs with automation because that will trigger the need for UBI to off-set the amount of jobless people no longer driving the economy. So, instead they've resorted to "churn and burn" practices. Things that allow them to burn people out and toss them aside and make it the workers fault.
More than that. It's designed first to enrich insurance, AI, and other business interests, to drive down wages and eventually replace humans with autonomous vehicles. Irobot.
Yeah, in a world where we are short of drivers and they are hiring questionable people, they are looking for reasons to fire you.
Doubly funny if OP is American, where you simply don't need reasons to fire people.
Right to work is very misunderstood online. It's not the freebie everyone seems to think it is.
If you terminate sometime without documented cause, you can't deny their unemployment claims and must keep paying them in all 50 states.
The myth that they can fire you with no recourse is something they want everyone to believe so that nobody files for unemployment. when they're entitled to it.
This is true in every state but Montana.
I program tattling programs for non-logistical industry. It does let us know if people mistreat equipment or even break speed limits. But what pays the bills is predictive maintenance or responding to reactive maintenance needs more quickly. We can reduce scheduled maintenance for longer and prevent failed parts from causing too much damage.
Sure it's a different industry but generally employees are expensive to hire and even more expensive to lose. Losing a job because of a number in an algorithm that decides to tattle is rare unless that employee is a total piece of shit that we were looking to sack for other reasons. Usually its a "Dude samsara told us you blew the speed limit in this town and we're going to get fined out the wazoo and you'll lose your DOT license. Dont do it again". If they do stupid shit again and get caught by the police, they might lose their DOT status for some number of months and be unemployable until it is restored. So really it is a safeguard to prevent that from happening in the first place and helps them KEEP their jobs longer.
Those Solera devices you've got are relatively common automotive IoT fleet trackers. They usually have gps antennas. They talk to the engine and transmission directly over canbus. Then they process that data and report what they see over a cell network. If they see nothing, they report that too with a heartbeat signal and various error codes.
Depending on the model, they sometimes have external cell antennas connected with a mini coaxial cable. Find it and unscrew it all the way, then re-screw it in by only 1 and a half rotations so it'll hang on but barely. Then clip the nearest ziptie so the cable wobbles free. It'll cause the nut on the coax to get a stress fracture in under a year. They will have to replace the gps/cell antenna module and those are like $300 a piece through Samsora. In the meantime you'll get iffy signal responses. Don't let them catch you cutting the zip tie on camera or you WILL lose your job.
Your truck will be in the maintenance shop relatively frequently at the request of whoever reads the reports for repair of that cell module. They won't find anything wrong with it, scratch their butts, then just screw it back down and replace the ziptie.
Unscrew it and clip it again.
don't let them catch you, you WILL lose your job
Hey director of IT for a trucking company here, i just want to reiterate this part!
Don't fucking do this. Any of this advice. You WILL lose your job and we WILL blacklist you from the industry for this shit. Maybe if you drivers could actually mange your fucking log books and follow the safety regulations we wouldn't need to have ELDs and camera and GPS and fucking canbus monitoring and annual inspections and all of the other """invasive nonsense""" the government requires.
I dont want it either. Its all crazy expensive, annoying to manage, and I have to constantly deal with drivers complaining about it.
Sorry. I'm a little upset with this issue because its a constant issue i have at work. But no there is nothing you can do besides just get another job.
I just want to reiterate it again. Do NOT mess with the equipment your company has in your truck. At best you'll just get fired but I've seen my company respond with legal measures in the past.
Trucking is so funny. There is an adversarial relationship between the drivers and the office, which you can see in this comment.
The industry is trying to solve safety issues caused by the nature of long haul driving and maintenance of profit in logistics by companies that use their services.
Trucking used to be a way a person could provide for their family, remain independent, and feel in control. Now, trucking is an industry where you are trapped in a moving computer designed primarily to reduce the insurance rates of the company that employs them, because their business practices and demands were so dangerous, individuals truckers had to drive more hours, get paid less for those hours, and literally drive themselves, and other motorists around them when they crashed, to death.
Then they blame the truckers as they race to bottom in hiring. Don't even get me started on nafta. Your industry sucks for the employees who are necessary to keep the economy moving.
My dude. How would you like a camera over your shoulder every minute of your workday, recording your every move? What might you do faced with that?
I’m a little upset with this issue because its a constant issue i have at work.
maybe find a new job where you don't act like completely garbage manager? or work to find a human centric solution rather than... oppressive digital technologies?
I hope you end up with a neurolink in your skull and are constantly monitored for wrongthink.
you drivers could actually mange your fucking log books and follow the safety regulations
you are part of the reason everyone hates management. the overburden of society by technofascists like you will result in many horrible repercussions down the line.
giving nerds any power over workers was a mistake
You're the fucking problem. Maybe if you treated people with humanity and worked towards a common solution instead of using technology to drain people's souls, you wouldn't have people that hate the shit you're slinging.
What you do makes the world a worse place to live in.
Reading this thread is really selling that dream job.
You all keep doing what you're doing and there will be no drivers left to squeeze out and make their life even more miserable.
Well the whole bit about backing out the nut is to cause it to fail in a manner that looks more like a maintenance problem and not a driver problem. Even when stuff like that only happens on one cab, it's not enough to point at a singular driver.
And yeah all of that advice comes with the rider that "you may be unemployable" afterwards.
Who tf references a truck driver blacklist?
So, what I'm hearing is "don't struggle or it's gonna hurt more". I think this advice is horrible.
You know there's plenty of control freaks micromanaging everything underneath them even if it pisses off their best people to the point of quitting.
Especially those 1 or 2 rungs higher up the chain who need to make up problems to solve so they can justify their existence.
Man i have had drivers i work go full on road rage. No really he reached up and tried to tuen off the camera. Im not sure if had a fake button or he jist pressed the wrong on. Bit he the grabbed a gun and got out. This was after pushing a car in the cement baracade.
Its crqzy what some people do in cars
This is the reason Unions exist.
Individually you have no power. As a group you do have power to force them to revoke these decisions.
Your choice is joining a Union or not.
Your options (pick any combination you please):
Those are good options but I get paid 32.75 per hour during the week and 40.75 on weekends and its a pretty cushy job. Hard to just get new job.
When i was fed up with the bosses in my cushy job, I made the job more cushy by starting my independent company. Same work, more money, no assholes treating me like shit and i learned from that. Now my colleges also have a cushy job, with a competent, nice boss.
In the end, your mental and physical health should always come before the job. Money isn't that nice if you are stressed wreck. You should still look for other work just so you at least have some options if it ever gets too awful dealing with all the bullshit your current work forces on you. It's probably not going to get much better and any solution regarding disabling/mitigating the current surveillance is likely temporary at best.
Just try to do it in such way your current employer doesn't know about it, just in case they get uppity about it. So use only devices managed by yourself for it and dont talk about it with others working for same employer.
Why is organizing not an option? Seems like you've ignored every reply here regarding unions, when in reality it's the only possible way to ever get rid of the AI (and probably get you better pay and benefits)
Whats wrong with joining a union? Some 50 yrs ago, over 80% of factory workers were unionized, today its more like 30% iirc. Its not because unions dont work, its because they do and companies spend copius anounts to get them discredited.
JOIN A UNION.
I love how people talk about joining a union like it's making an order on Amazon.
If it was that easy bro probably wouldn't be asking for help.
The reality is in a lot of cases the easier thing to do is quit and fuck everyone else.
Unions do very little to make it easier to create a new one if you are not part of one already, and even if you have the will, you also need the network, people skills, patience, money and contacts to make it work.
Okay, I have to assume you dont actually know how unions work.
Unions arent employer specific. They can be industry specific but they dont have to be.
You just put your city or the industry you work into your favorite search engine and give the first 5 pages a cursory look. Whatever seems most interesting, you do a little research about. It the impression is net positive, you join them. Most unions also have some kind of solidarity thing where people who dont have a lot dont have to pay a lot.
In return, they help you with work problems, help you find new work in some cases and even strike with you.
Please join unions.
As much as others may hate it, hexbear has actually pinned great sources to start your own union.
Hexbear has a lot of good things, it's just it's users are sometimes a pain.
You seem kinda despairing and dismissive of the obvious answer... talking to your union.
You have no power over your employer, but your union does.
Additionally, and this is kinda wild but, have you spoken to your supervisor? What did they say? Did you explain what it is about it that's so annoying?
I've worked as a consultant for companies that use this type of thing and most disable the verbal warnings and stuff because they're not helpful in any way.
Not all of us have Unions..... Just saying
Stick a chewing gum on the thing's speaker and start singing songs with very dirty and explicit lyrics, like gangsta rap and Bloodhound Gang.
All day long, everyday.
Persuade your colleagues to do the same.
They will have an endless string of report notifications they can't do shit about.
Fight smart.
Edit: still the best thing to do is unionize as many others already suggested, but fighting on more than one front is a good tactic, wars are won by exhausting your opponent.
Weird, what does your union has to say about it?
Are you paid by the hour or per delivery? If by hour, malicious compliance. Stay 5mph below speed limit because you don't want to be flagged. AI doesn't recognize the street as such? Take a long detour, it didn't allow me to take that route. It complains about overtaking? Never overtake ever again someone was to close to the truck when you tried to back in? Never back in again unless the premises is completely clear of people. Oh and find a better employer. An employer that doesn't trusts its employees is never worth it.
It's usually per mile if its long haul, which is the root of all the problems because that incentivizes the driver to go faster and spend less time on other things. And it fucks the driver over because they don't get paid if they're not moving, even if they're waiting on someone else.
I would get another job. During your exit interview, make sure they know this is the sole reason you are leaving.
its trucking they dont care (:
They don't care until they don't have any truckers. Then they care.
If its a big company like old dominion, they likely wont give a fuck ever, but my company always has trouble keeping hold of truckers and they really do give a shit about the churn.
It’s trucking, you should stop dismissing a union
The lady has sung.
There's an oversupply of ununionized trucker labor, so they'll likely just replace you until union strikes cause a labor shortage.
Yeah, talk to your union about this.
Alright, so you probably can't get rid of it, but you can make it look like it's defective. Make it look like it's sending way too many false positives. Find somewhere where you can get away with making obvious mistakes and then make like fifty of them in a row. "Why would I, an intelligent human being, just sit in the middle of an empty street doing donuts in an 18-wheeler for 10 straight minutes? I have a job to do," you say. If you got one of those "constantly monitoring everything you say" things Amazon tried rolling out, just start spouting random gibberish. Some pencil-pusher at HQ sees a transcript come back that just says "reptile shoestring meridian front sawdust henway ball Amtrak septuagint ladder correct horse battery staple java thorpe 2 Chainz" over and over for like 40 pages, worst-case scenario he's not gonna read it, best-case scenario he's gonna think the company's paying way too much for shit that don't work.
Correct horse battery staple.... I see you xkcd reference.
https://xkcd.com/936
You'd have to get everyone with the system to do the same, otherwise it looks like 1 unit is bad. After replacing it, they'll know something's up if one dudes unit is putting out gibberish
These things are smarter / dumber than that. They talk directly to the engine and transmission with canbus to record operating conditions. And they have a dedicated GPS antenna. Then they generate a live report from that data that is sent over a dedicated cell connection.
Talking nonsense to it or driving in circles wont fool it. I recommend physical sabotage that mimics installation failure.
This is becoming more common in a variety of jobs. I work in tech, and have heard from colleagues about their experiences with nanny software. Without a union, your best bet is malicious compliance. I would start looking for hacker communities and posting there, because there can be simple but non-obvious ways to circumvent controls while still seeming to comply, which protects your job.
This is the best option as I see it..
Shit in the glove compartment to assert dominance.
Cup holders are just cups to hold your cups....piss in them.
No. If you want privacy, transportation is the wrong career. Trains are much the same.
While looking for a new job. Be slow and careful about everything. If the tattler is snitching on you, take your time to make sure everything is correct.
Painfully, extra-slowly correct, keep slowing it down until management notices and asks. Tell them you're just doing what's needed to keep the AI off your back
Do you know what kind of sensors it relies on to observe its surroundings?
It's probably more than just this, but if anything audio related, you could try to come up with a poisonify device to fuck with it.
Might be more trouble than it's worth if you're not tech savvy, wish there was more stuff like this I could recommend.
ETA: Also wondering if something like a Flipper Zero or HackRF One could help create some convincing false-positives.
ETA2: read the replies to my comment, valid concerns regarding getting fired and/or throwing off the scent from yourself
Messing with company property is the fast track to getting fired.
Poison multiple people's trucks at the same time and not yours in the first wave certainly
My company has their own llm now meant for internal employees, what baffles me is they exposed the domain to the internet. Can’t wait for this to backfire.
tries admin/root login:
"this account is awaiting activation"
LMAO okay then
Quit. Let them know why you quit. You are a truck driver and can get another job within a week.
Crazy idea I haven't seen posted here, but hear me out:
Stop driving like a dick. Follow the rules of the road. Stop speeding. Stop swerving. Stop going over the lines at stop signs and traffic lights. ETC...
This will slow down the route by hours. That's the only way that they'll discontinue it, when they realize that it's making the delivery routes slower.
and stop driving like a dick, you're driving a fucking truck.
Have you driven a 26 wheeler in the city with people that don't pay attention or even know the rules of the road?
Meh, these systems are ripe for false positives, all it does is weed out riskier drivers, or provide incentive to encourage reduction in pay and benefits in order to mitigate said "risk." These systems are cancerous.
It's never the speeder at fault, it's always those damn {politicians, cops, other drivers, cameras} who are wrong.
A well placed magnet might help...
Ive been saying we need to be developing consumer grade emps before its too late
Btw these little DIY 2.4 GHz jammers are also very handy to have just in case. As long as you get them out the way before you set off the EMP generator 😅
Do you have to violate laws/regulations laws to meet schedules? Perhaps malicious compliance and adhere to all laws. As some have said, a union could help. If you don't have to violate laws/regulations to meet schedule, perhaps consider adhering to laws/regulations.
Find a company that's already unionized or form a union within your current company.
You might also tell them that the AI is distracting because it's constantly talking, which is likely true anyway.
Holy fuck you all are a bunch of callous assholes. Telling someone to "join a union" or "ask your union" about it are fucking mental. Do you really think OP is working a union gig or are you really that stupid to think you just go out to the union store and ask for one union card? How is this helpful to anyone who is in a non-union job working for a non-union company. I'll bet you all are the same people that tell depressed people to "just be happy." It's just useless, if not ourtright malicious, advice to give someone.
Well, if it is not helpful advice for OP it is not bad advice.
It's really not even advice. It's just self aggrandizement and dumbass people looking for a circle jerk to join. It doesn't address the issue that OP has in the slightest practical way, and is kind of callus to their actual problem.
Idk why you're getting downvoted. You're right. It's insane that for some people "create a union" seems to be a magic solution that anyone can just magically do on their own.
There is a lot of magical thinking and ideology in this thread, very little grounded, human to human advice.
Line up a new job. Then get in the passenger side of the truck and let the AI drive today.
Then enjoy your new job knowing you made the world a better place.
I feel ya, mate. I've got the same thing in my company vehicle. It absolutely irritates the shit out of me that anyone above my level of the hierarchy can look at me any time they want.
I point the inside camera up except when I piss in a bottle (:
There are fucking cameras in the cab.... damn I'm sorry, yo. That blows ass nuggets.
Ha, I wish! They've fired people already for merely obscuring the camera for a few seconds. There is a hilarious clip of someone reaching up with a pair of scissors and getting the wire, but I like having a steady job with insurance too much. Maybe when I get tired of this shit and get hired somewhere else.
Find Miles Dyson
It will be interesting when they can't keep strong workers because they've scared the shit out of them.
HARD BRAKE DETECTED!
This will become ubiquitous. Every job will soon have AI analyzing all your work throughput and flagging any employee for inefficiency.
I am glad I will be retiring in the not too distant future. I would not want to have to work with AI constantly watching me.
Its bullshit because AI has zero experience driving a truck.
Give your truck a lobotomy.
Could try a wifi cell jammer. Ai don't do shit without internet
That's going to be incredibly illegal to use outdoors. Make sure you know what the regulations are before engaging in any kind of jamming, you might block someone else's emergency transmissions.
better to find the antenna and short it out. jammers are at best illegal and at worst you end up leaving it on and fuck up someone's 911 call.
Probably true, couldn't think of another solution that doesn't damage the vehicle
Until he drops off the truck at the office and it uploads everything at once.
Yes this problem likely won't be solved without someone taking apart the telemetry software. Spoofing the sensor data is an option if you understand how the data is collected but hardly a good option for someone without a specific skillset
What? Why do you want to do wrong things with your truck?
Only if US drivers would stop driving like idiots and idling their motors wasting fuel.
Meta: Why aren't the bans showing up in the modlog?
What bans?
Who are you trying to ban?
Can you afford a phone carrier jammer?
Lol why don't you touch some grass?
You form a union and bargain with your employer. Thats about it though
Or seek greener non-ai-infested pastures
Yea give up to A.I. that's the only choice.
I think you misunderstand what a union does.
Try to fight your company without organisation and you will be giving up your job. Look up the laws wherever you are and form a union. Be smart about it though and dont get caught in the act of forming it.
Pretty sure literally nobody here said that
Nope, refuse.
that's what your company wants you to believe
Don't be a pussy.
https://generalstrikeus.com/