Consumers worldwide say they want to experience self-driving vehicles as automakers roll out an increasing number of cars that can take over and drive themselves, using mathematical calculations, an array of sensors and electronic controls of key vehicle systems.

A thief walks through a truck stop with a driver’s smart phone in hand when he crosses an invisible boundary. Suddenly the phone announces loudly and repeatedly, “This phone has been stolen!”

An ever-increasing number of fleets today are investing significant capital to outfit their trucks with the latest safety technology to reduce accidents that harm people and disrupt freight operations.

Considering the treatment that a budding chief information officer once might have gotten on the playground from a budding truck driver, it is no small thing in 2010 to hear that the successful trucking company desperately needs both of these people to move the freight and make a profit.