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Not sure what rail services are like where you live, but in the UK it's about 50/50 whether it is faster to travel between major cities by car or by train. Trai

by nsgi 9y ago

Not sure what rail services are like where you live, but in the UK it's about 50/50 whether it is faster to travel between major cities by car or by train. Trains can go faster but this is often counterbalanced by needing to slow down to come to a stop, etc. There will always be places that can't be reached with public transport and even in cities like Paris renowned for their public transport it is often necessary to change several times as part of a journey. Many light rail services e.g. BART and the London Underground are completely crazy at rush hour and there are many obstacles to increasing frequency. A big challenge of self driving trains is ensuring they are able to stop in time if an obstacle is present, and this relies on fairly similar technology to that of driverless cars. Self driving cars would reduce traffic because they would reduce accidents and allow cars to sort themselves into slots automatically rather than waiting at traffic lights. You have a good point about rush hour traffic being increased by cars driving outside the city to park, although cars could park more efficiently in city centres if multi-storey car parks didn't need to allocate space for humans.

deleted 9y ago
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iainmerrick 9y ago
I'm confident in saying there's zero chance that self-driving cars, on their own, could replace the London Underground. Zero. The Underground (and commuter rail that feeds into it) carries a vast number of people every day. There's just not enough road space to get that many cars in and out, even if they were 2x or 4x more efficient. If you want to fix the Underground (although it works fairly well so it's not clear why drastic changes are needed) you need to start thinking about buses and bicycles, staggering working times to avoid rush hours, moving jobs outside the city so people don't have to commute in at all, that sort of thing. None of those actually needs AI. Self-driving cars (and especially self-driving buses and minibuses) can certainly be part of the solution, but they're not the solution.
- StudentStuff 9y ago
  Where a train can move 20k+ people an hour in each direction, a standard road moves around 1k. Self driving cars will only make sense as chauffeur replacements for Uber, Lyft and Taxis, as even with a tripling in capacity, you'd still be wholly uncompetitive with rail. Nevermind the inefficiencies of enlarging roadways :P
- oarsinsync 9y ago
  > If you want to fix the Underground (although it works fairly well so it's not clear why drastic changes are needed) The population of London continues to increase. Central, Northern, Jubilee lines are often difficult to get on during rush hours, and even harder to stay on. And that's in the winter, summer time's a whole other ball game... Self driving cars are certainly not the solution, but that's not to say there's not plenty that needs fixing on the London Underground. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOF_XIylzS8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOF_XIylzS8 still rings true, albeit with less BK these days than before.

by nsgi 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

iainmerrick 9y ago

I'm confident in saying there's zero chance that self-driving cars, on their own, could replace the London Underground. Zero. The Underground (and commuter rail that feeds into it) carries a vast number of people every day. There's just not enough road space to get that many cars in and out, even if they were 2x or 4x more efficient. If you want to fix the Underground (although it works fairly well so it's not clear why drastic changes are needed) you need to start thinking about buses and bicycles, staggering working times to avoid rush hours, moving jobs outside the city so people don't have to commute in at all, that sort of thing. None of those actually needs AI. Self-driving cars (and especially self-driving buses and minibuses) can certainly be part of the solution, but they're not the solution.

StudentStuff 9y ago
Where a train can move 20k+ people an hour in each direction, a standard road moves around 1k. Self driving cars will only make sense as chauffeur replacements for Uber, Lyft and Taxis, as even with a tripling in capacity, you'd still be wholly uncompetitive with rail. Nevermind the inefficiencies of enlarging roadways :P
oarsinsync 9y ago
> If you want to fix the Underground (although it works fairly well so it's not clear why drastic changes are needed) The population of London continues to increase. Central, Northern, Jubilee lines are often difficult to get on during rush hours, and even harder to stay on. And that's in the winter, summer time's a whole other ball game... Self driving cars are certainly not the solution, but that's not to say there's not plenty that needs fixing on the London Underground. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOF_XIylzS8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOF_XIylzS8 still rings true, albeit with less BK these days than before.