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We've had them in Australia's north west for a long time. Interestingly they come with their own set of problems. https://www.perthnow.com.au/business/mining/d

• taneq 8y ago
  > "...a driverless train..." > "The driver had stepped off the train..." It wasn't a driverless train (except in the technical sense that the driver wasn't onboard) and the quote comes from CFMEU (for non-locals, that's the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union, a massive workers' union) which has a vested interest in pushing back against automation.
  • King-Aaron 8y ago
    The 'driver' operates a dead man switch in a lot of cases, and that's about it. I can't recall if this train itself was an automated test bed, but a lot of BHP and Rio's rail operations are managed from the control center in Perth, and drivers are (usually :P ) aboard in case of problems. Edit: So it looks like even though they've had the technology going for a while, Rio only just delivered their first 'real' loaded autonomous ore train last year : https://www.riotinto.com/ourcommitment/spotlight-18130_25692.aspx https://www.riotinto.com/ourcommitment/spotlight-18130_25692... More on the AutoHaul system: http://www.calibregroup.com/projects/project/autohaul-project http://www.calibregroup.com/projects/project/autohaul-projec... Apologies for the mixup
    • taneq 8y ago
      Easy mistake to make, the story was a bit misleading calling it 'driverless'!