Steel Drivers and the Road Ahead

Back in 2019, I was swept up in the energy of a long-shot presidential campaign that wasn’t afraid to talk about the future. While the media focused on polls and party infighting, Andrew Yang was talking about truck drivers.

Not just truck drivers—automation, AI, and the millions of jobs he said were at risk. It wasn’t some dystopian vision or sci-fi fantasy. It was a sober warning wrapped in policy, math hats, and humanity-first thinking. And I was all in.

I volunteered, organized, and helped run the Western Massachusetts campaign Slack channel. We worked hard to get the word out to voters who’d never heard of UBI or even considered that self-driving trucks might someday replace the 3.5 million truckers keeping America running.

Fast forward to today, and that “someday” is now.

This week I read a story in the New York Post about robo-trucks in Texas—how they’re now outperforming human drivers by 11 seconds in emergency stops, driving overnight routes from Dallas to Houston with LiDAR vision and zero fatigue. These aren’t prototypes anymore. They’re here. And they’re faster, safer, and cheaper than the humans they’re replacing.

I thought of Yang immediately. He warned us. And he was right.

So I did what I do best: I picked up my fiddle and wrote a song.

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🎵 Steel Drivers Roar Tonight
This track is a bluegrass tribute to the robo-truck revolution now rolling down Texas highways. It’s fast and gritty, driven by banjo and fiddle, and laced with lyrics that trace both wonder and worry. Here are a few lines:

“Down in Texas where the highways hum,
Robo-trucks are rollin’, the future’s come.
With LiDAR eyes, they see in the night,
Haulin’ freight ‘neath the stars so bright.”

And in the chorus:

“From Dallas to Houston, they’re steady and true,
The future’s on wheels, and it’s comin’ for you.”

But I didn’t just want to paint a picture of cool tech—I wanted to include the human story too. One verse touches on that tension:

“Old truckers worry, ‘Will jobs fade away?’
But new routes are callin’ for a brighter day.
Home every night, no long hauls to roam,
Robo-trucks takin’ the wheel, bringin’ folks home.”

I still believe in what Yang stood for: preparing people for what’s coming, not pretending the future can be stopped. He inspired me to think critically about how technology shapes our lives—and to use my voice and music to respond to those changes.

Steel Drivers Roar Tonight is my tribute to that vision.

🎧 You can listen to the track on Bandcamp:
👉 https://adamsweet.bandcamp.com/track/steel-drivers-roar-tonight

Whether you’re a bluegrass fan, a tech observer, or a fellow Yang supporter—this one’s for you.