"The average age of a commercial driver is 55 (and rising every year), with projected driver shortages" and "The loss of jobs representing 1 percent of the U.S. workforce will be a devastating blow to the economy" don't really add up. There is more and more jobs that young people don't want to do and this is probably one of the best examples. They have to be automated or at some point we won't have anyone to do them. In addition, this is going to take more than 10 years to get both regulations and road improvements to make this happen, so based on the current average age, a lot of them will be near/past retirement.
If you were 55+ with your only qualification being that you could drive a truck and that niche was automated away, this would absolutely be devastating to you.
That would probably be better. In reality, however, a business will go for the cheaper (or required-by-law) option and will more heavily towards humans or automation
To be honest, if I'm 55+, I'm probably not too worried that self driving trucks without attendant drivers might be permitted on some major trunk routes a few years after my retirement
