Look. I don’t care that I’m almost 40 and my favorite novel of all time is written for a teenage audience. Ready Player One is my jam. And with Steven Spielberg’s new blockbuster coming out this weekend, today seems like the perfect time to expose hard truths about about one of the most important topics in logistics today: autonomous trucking. You won’t hear the truth from the mainstream media and I’ll be surprised if I’m not immediately silenced by real life truckers, but it’s time to visualize our future. What does it look like when autonomous trucking becomes ubiquitous? Artificial intelligence and virtual reality technologies will become everyday objects like electronic billboards and smartphones. It’s time we face an ugly fact: the future of logistics looks terrible.

In Spielberg’s world, driver-less trucks aren't more than high-speed-people-and-object movers

Imagine growing up in a world where food vouchers hold more value than life, and where going to school is not only the smartest but the safest place you can spend your free time. Entire cities are built on stacks of trailers and scrap metal. What does the supply chain look like in a world where people live inside stacks of trailers, RVs, and used shipping containers? You can’t swing by Starbucks for a skinny vanilla latte because the coffee supply chain centralized to a single monopoly, acting as its own supplier, manufacturer, distributor, and retailer. Who needs selection when marketing and technology have made the best choice obvious to consumers? Capitalism, as we know it, has crumbled under overpopulation, government corruption, and climate change. It’s not any wonder why classic TV shows like Family Ties resonate with teens like Wade, the main protagonist in Ready Player One. The Utopian, middle-class family could solve any problem thrown their way as long as they had each other. An impoverished, abused orphan, Wade escapes reality through sitcoms and gaming. Sad, right?

Anyway, this article isn’t about character development and plot struggles. Spielberg's future looks bleak. Read or watch and you might agree. But if we look more closely at the setting in Ready Player One, the warning signs are everywhere. During my enthusiastic re-read of the book before the March 29 cinematic debut, here are the five I counted:

Warning Sign #1: Food vouchers

I don’t know about you but this reeks of the Great Depression. A far cry from government assistance, vouchers for food symbolize not just poverty but scarcity. When breakfasts consists of soy bacon and powdered eggs, you may have a huge farm-to-table problem.

Warning Sign # 2: Employment Woes

Centralized supply chains offer opportunity for massive growth and success, if you’re a CEO like James D. Halliday. Halliday is the co-creator of the OASIS, a virtual realm where people can work, learn, and play. Think of the OASIS like the eCommerce giant Amazon. Like Halliday, CEO Jeff Bezos used convenience to disrupt the supply chain and forever change how we obtain everything we need to survive. It’s pretty lonely at the top, however. While Amazon’s chief officers earn a comfortable living, there’s no way to retire on a Receiving Clerk’s annual salary of $22,000. The availability and low entrance fee of these jobs lead to widespread underemployment and unemployment, which ultimately leads to higher crime rates.

Warning Sign # 3: Black market crime and looting

In the OASIS, no one is trying to kidnap you (spoiler alert: unless you’re winning control of the entire universe) in order to sell your organs on the black market for food vouchers. Even today, black market crimes like human trafficking exist but aren’t as in our face as looting and robbery. With all that petty theft and murder going on, future people must be really hangry.

Warning Sign # 4: Abandoned strip malls

They’re probably hangry for the good ol’ days of consumerism. An empty strip mall can be a sign of economic decay, or a change in consumer behavior. After the exhilarating experience of using a grocery delivery service last weekend, I may decide to never step foot in a strip mall again. The service comes at a premium, which makes it only accessible to some. So what do people do when they can’t afford premium delivery services or shop in strip malls? They earn and spend all their virtual money in the OASIS on avatar skins and mods. Proof that cryptocurrency has limited uses even in the year 2044. Buy Bitcoin? More like “bye, Bitcoin.”

Warning Sign # 5: Self-driving trucks and mass transport

Did someone say autonomous vehicles? Personal passenger vehicles and joy-riding only exist in the OASIS where cars fly and shelves virtually restock themselves. In Spielberg’s world, driver-less truck aren't more than high-speed-people-and-object movers.

The ball is already rolling toward a driver-less future. Two years ago Uber delivered the first autonomous freight shipment of Budweiser. Supply chains and carriers are slowly replacing fleets with autonomous trucks made by Tesla, Otto, Uber, and others. From where we stand today, we have about 25 years until driver-controlled semis are completely off the road. No wonder driver shortages continue to climb year after year. Would you enter a career with such a short shelf life? Maybe the driver shortage problem will eventually work itself out on its own. Maybe there won’t be 3.5 million drivers left jobless. After all, the fastest way to clear mud is to do nothing.

I can’t wait to see my favorite book adapted to the big screen. Not gonna lie. I’ll probably be elbowing my neighbor every time a warning sign appears. Which aspects of Ready Player One do you believe may become real life? With that question, I leave you with these three words:

Ready Shipper One





Terese Kerrigan is the Director of Marketing Communications for FreightCenter, the first third-party logistics provider to disrupt the industry with its online rating and booking technology.