3 ms·

We have those; they’re called parking lots and they’re usually found at commuter train stations. Snark aside, I don’t think it makes much sense to try to merge

We have those; they’re called parking lots and they’re usually found at commuter train stations. Snark aside, I don’t think it makes much sense to try to merge cars together at high speed. It’s a very complicated maneuver, requiring all cars behind the intended merge point to back up and make room, and the consequences of an accident have unlimited catastrophic potential. We could see hundreds of cars destroyed in a massive collision. Besides that, the costs seem astronomical: actually developing the technology, making sure all car manufacturers comply with the standard, and replacing every single car on the road with a compliant model. Wouldn’t it be much easier to put all of that money into building high speed railways? We’ve already perfected that technology.

bluGill 7y ago
The biggest issue is trust. I maintain my own cars: I trust myself, but do you trust me? I don't trust some of the professional mechanics that work on cars. In the current scheme we are told to maintain a large enough following distance that this question don't matter: no matter what happens in front of you, you can still react in time to recover. (You will not that the vast majority of drivers do not maintain this following distance) In a raid train situation all cars must be maintained to high enough standards for the most risk adverse person. In trains we already have standards, and have developed schemes to ensure that cars are maintained to standards. Note that trust above needs to account for the terrorist trying to kill people. It is debatable what systems works.
notacoward 7y ago
Docking wouldn't have to occur at high speed, or moving at all, for this to be useful. For example, I live in Massachusetts and I have a car full of gear that I'd like to have for my vacation in New Hampshire or New Jersey or Michigan. So I drive down to the local train depot, where my car is docked (or even just loaded onto) a train, I get in the passenger compartment, we're reunited at the other end. Already more efficient than driving, and more pleasant too. Now start adding tweaks like loading only the passenger compartment, which is already a separate thing in electric vehicles. Or running rails along one lane of existing highway, with docking/undocking at existing rest areas. Once the basic "dock instead of driving" idea gets established, it's possible to iterate on it.

bluGill 7y ago

The biggest issue is trust. I maintain my own cars: I trust myself, but do you trust me? I don't trust some of the professional mechanics that work on cars. In the current scheme we are told to maintain a large enough following distance that this question don't matter: no matter what happens in front of you, you can still react in time to recover. (You will not that the vast majority of drivers do not maintain this following distance) In a raid train situation all cars must be maintained to high enough standards for the most risk adverse person. In trains we already have standards, and have developed schemes to ensure that cars are maintained to standards. Note that trust above needs to account for the terrorist trying to kill people. It is debatable what systems works.

notacoward 7y ago

Docking wouldn't have to occur at high speed, or moving at all, for this to be useful. For example, I live in Massachusetts and I have a car full of gear that I'd like to have for my vacation in New Hampshire or New Jersey or Michigan. So I drive down to the local train depot, where my car is docked (or even just loaded onto) a train, I get in the passenger compartment, we're reunited at the other end. Already more efficient than driving, and more pleasant too. Now start adding tweaks like loading only the passenger compartment, which is already a separate thing in electric vehicles. Or running rails along one lane of existing highway, with docking/undocking at existing rest areas. Once the basic "dock instead of driving" idea gets established, it's possible to iterate on it.