> Automated subways are just autonomous cars that work in a highly constrained environment. Ie, this is that Tesla and Boring Co are attempting to build. The di

> Automated subways are just autonomous cars that work in a highly constrained environment. Ie, this is that Tesla and Boring Co are attempting to build. The difference between tunnels and streets is the complexity of the environment. No, they’re really not, just like trains aren’t just cars that operate in constrained environments. They have a number of advantages, including feasibility, max speed, efficiency. The main reason I know this is a poor comparison is that they are already in use in many countries (and they look nothing like cramped tunnels with traffic jams). > A typical LRT car has 5 segments, 50 seats and a total capacity of 250. The Paris metro has two automated lines, one built that way and one retrofitted. The retrofitted line, line 1, uses cars with capacity for 722 people https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP_05 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP_05 (by comparison, an NYC train can carry around 2,000 people, they are longer). During rush hour, they have headway of 3 minutes (I’ve seen less in other subway systems, as little as 1m30, indeed it looks like line 14 has an 85 second minimum headway for safety). > What if instead every 6 seconds a five person vehicle rolled by? You’re going to struggle to embark in 6 seconds. If we solve that problem (with magical thinking or otherwise), subways are even more advantageous, since that’s where they waste tons of time! > it is highly unlikely that it needs to stop at every stop, so as long as you have a separate loading/unloading zone you can get transit capacity, seating for everyone, less waiting etc. THAT is your autonomous EVs based transit system. Turns out tons of people go to the same small set of stations, so you’re going to have a large problem embarking and disembarking in the given space. Same with time, everyone wants to move around at the same time. Again, this is a solved engineering problem, there’s no need for train-like-but-not-as-good transit autonomous individual EVs.