3 ms·

I envision, with automatic cars, a situation where the cars run bumper-to-bumper, like train cars, and then can detach and exit the track. Best of both worlds.

• jcranmer 9y ago
  If cars run bumper-to-bumper, that mean the entire line must come to a halt when you detach one car, then the front half must move forward to give some clearance, the car can then leave, then the rear must speed up faster to catch the front half. The experience from the train world is that having to switch trains on a line severely crimps performance: you can get 40tph on an unswitched line, but only about 30tph on a switched line. The limiting factor on trains tends to be ingress and egress.
  • detaro 9y ago
    if they are physically coupled then yes, but if they are independent it likely would be more flexible and you could create and close spaces with smaller speed adjustments. Surely someone has already modeled this? The biggest problem I see with approaches like this is how it's going to get going while they have to share roads with individual traffic. Street infrastructure isn't designed for long convoys that have to stick together, otherwise something like this would be a good start e.g. for trucking: Lead truck can even be human-driven, and a group of trucks in automatic mode follows as a closed unit while their drivers rest.
    • njarboe 9y ago
      Thus "The Boring Company" was born.