In Kansas City, my Uber driver, Jesse, shared an offhand comment about his living situation. With rising housing and gas prices, his girlfriend’s mother and a close friend had moved in with them due to financial pressures. Jesse is one of 1.6 million rideshare drivers in the U.S. who drives for a living.

During that week, PepsiCo reported a significant development in autonomous delivery with the largest deployment of fully autonomous trucks in American history. This $600 million investment, in collaboration with Gatik AI, involves medium-duty Isuzu trucks delivering Doritos and Frito-Lay products without human intervention. These trucks have been operating on fixed short-haul routes since June 2025, boasting a zero-accident track record and a 99 percent on-time delivery rate.

PepsiCo’s initiative is not mere experimentation. Alongside Gatik, Isuzu, and Nvidia are advancing plans for a production facility in South Carolina set to mass-produce Level 4 autonomous trucks by late 2027. According to Gatik’s CEO, hundreds of trucks are aimed for this year alone. In the U.S., 3.5 million truck drivers face an uncertain future.

This technological shift impacts Jesse’s sphere as well. Waymo operates approximately 3,800 robotaxis across American roads. By 2026, it targets 20 new markets. Companies like Tesla and Amazon’s Zoox are scaling operations swiftly. Robotaxis have turned from science fiction into reality in places like Phoenix, San Francisco, and Austin.

This landscape intersects with a statistic that deserves attention: 32 percent of U.S. adults own a firearm. Ownership is prevalent in rural areas and among men without college degrees — the demographic most vulnerable to automation-driven job losses. 47 percent of rural adults have guns, compared to 20 percent of urban adults.

Here’s the unrecognized risk: Millions of working-class Americans face job displacement due to automation. They are consolidating households to cope, living in a nation with more guns than people, and within a legal framework that often doesn’t criminalize retail theft under certain thresholds.

Walking through CVS or Walgreens in cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, or New York, one observes merchandise-locking cages, which 69 percent of U.S. retailers adopted from 2019 to 2023. In 2024, 20 percent of retailers shut down locations due to theft. In California, Proposition 47 downgraded theft of property under $950 from a felony to a misdemeanor, giving rise to organized theft rings exploiting legal gaps. Despite legal adjustments, the decade-long impact of brazen shoplifting persists.

When institutions fail in upholding the social contract, people establish their own mechanisms for enforcement — a historical pattern, not mere commentary.

This isn’t alarmism, but pattern recognition. Societies experiencing swift technological displacement, without concurrent investment in retraining, safety nets, and civic trust, historically pay a price. The cost manifests in elections or sometimes in less reversible forms.

While political debates focus on trivial aspects, Jesse in Kansas City represents a broader dilemma. He blends two additional residents into his apartment while hoping the ride assignment algorithm doesn’t cut back his opportunities. The pertinent question isn’t the inevitability of job displacement caused by automation. It’s already occurring. The vital concern is determining plans for Jesse and others in similar situations.

Chocko Valliappa, a fourth-generation entrepreneur and Chairman of the Sona Group, established HireMee. This platform connects millions of job-seekers with employers, receiving recognition through a YPO Global Impact Award and as a Top-5 XPRIZE finalist in Rapid Reskilling. It’s designed to bridge the skills gap in emerging economies.

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