The University of Michigan, in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, published the findings of a new study that predicts drastic changes in the trucking industry.

Under this plan, human drivers would still carry loads from their origination points to truck ports located within about 150 miles. At the titular transfer hubs, trailers and loads would then be shifted from human-controlled vehicles to automated trucks for the long-haul portions of their journey…

Study co-author Parth Vaishnav called trucking “one of the few jobs that give folks with a high school education the chance to make a decent living,” and warned that there continues to be ” little clarity on how automated trucking will be deployed and its economic and political ramifications.”

Vaishnav believes that “Ultimately, societal and political choices can determine the mode of deployment of automated trucking capabilities, as well as the winners and losers of any shift to automation of long-haul trucking.”