This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ingrid Brown, a professional truck driver and operations manager at Blackjack Express LLC. It has been edited for length and clarity. When I first started truck driving, I only had a CB radio. There was no telephone, no communications, and no technology for anybody to know where I parked at night. Especially as a woman, I thought about things like whether I was parked in a safe place. If I didn't move my truck in the morning, how is somebody going to know whether something's happened to me? Now, AI and other technology can tell me if there's a deer in front of me. It can tell me if one of my drivers is dozing off or daydreaming. It can remind me to pay attention to the road. Technology has gotten to a point where I'm accepting of it. It can help prevent what could go wrong next. Autonomous trucks are different. I'm open to the conversation. But until it can prove to me that there will not be any type of loss of life, I'm going to sit back and watch it. Truck drivers were their own patrol I'm from Boone, North Carolina, and started driving trucks in 1979. My first truck was a '79 Diamond Reo. Once I got a taste of going to different places and experiencing different cultures, I fell in love with 80,000 pounds of iron. My haul has included cows, steel, produce, and dynamite. The last time I counted, I had 5.7 million safe driving miles. Back then, safety really depended on the person behind the wheel. It depended on how well you did pre-trips or safety inspections before you hit the road. It depended on how well you chose to drive, how well you