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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 rai
by 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 agoWhere 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.