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Autonomous battery electrical vehicles on simple roads might be a lot cheaper, faster, simpler, and more flexible than either railway or this. This project has

Autonomous battery electrical vehicles on simple roads might be a lot cheaper, faster, simpler, and more flexible than either railway or this. This project has a high risk of being technically obsoleted by such a thing long before completion.

skeeks 4y ago
Switzerland has no space for additional "simple roads". It would also be extremely difficult go get it approved, as it would pass through many municipalities. You would have hundreds of objections by residents and probably also a few referendums.
- greggsy 4y ago
  I think they’re suggesting existing roads, which have their own issues (ie the presence of humans)
ThePadawan 4y ago
It also would not solve the problem which this is trying to solve, less vehicles on the road and less congestion in the cities. Unless of course you mean to say that all vehicles on the road should be autonomous EVs before the first stages of CST are finished (sometime in the 2030s), in which case I want to congratulate you on your optimism that that would be "a lot cheaper, faster, simpler, and more flexible than either railway or this".
Kronen 4y ago
The main point is to get congestion out of roads and your solution is to increase congestion. Nice!
- jillesvangurp 4y ago
  Autonomous vehicles can use existing roads more efficiently. In fact, that's the whole point of this tunneling project. Think of a tunnel as just a stupidly expensive road and you'll see that simply having autonomous vehicles without the billions of dollars of infrastructure would achieve the same goal. Simply close a few roads for normal traffic and you have the same advantages but without the tunnels and power rails. Vastly cheaper. And there already are lots of roads. So, these vehicles could go to a lot of places instead of only a select few elevators above the tunnels. And of course you could actually mix autonomous and regular traffic as autonomous vehicles get smarter. Like is already happening in parts of the world. Also, the main issue in cities is not tunneling into a central location but distributing goods all over the city using e.g. cargo bikes, small vans, etc. Many of those are already electric and typically operate from distribution centers on the edge of the cities. Banning regular traffic out of the cities would free a lot of space for that. Some cities are already doing that or at least strongly discouraging car traffic. E.g. London, Paris, Amsterdam, etc. have large car free zones and lots of modern electric delivery vehicles.

skeeks 4y ago

Switzerland has no space for additional "simple roads". It would also be extremely difficult go get it approved, as it would pass through many municipalities. You would have hundreds of objections by residents and probably also a few referendums.

greggsy 4y ago
I think they’re suggesting existing roads, which have their own issues (ie the presence of humans)

ThePadawan 4y ago

It also would not solve the problem which this is trying to solve, less vehicles on the road and less congestion in the cities. Unless of course you mean to say that all vehicles on the road should be autonomous EVs before the first stages of CST are finished (sometime in the 2030s), in which case I want to congratulate you on your optimism that that would be "a lot cheaper, faster, simpler, and more flexible than either railway or this".

Kronen 4y ago

The main point is to get congestion out of roads and your solution is to increase congestion. Nice!

jillesvangurp 4y ago
Autonomous vehicles can use existing roads more efficiently. In fact, that's the whole point of this tunneling project. Think of a tunnel as just a stupidly expensive road and you'll see that simply having autonomous vehicles without the billions of dollars of infrastructure would achieve the same goal. Simply close a few roads for normal traffic and you have the same advantages but without the tunnels and power rails. Vastly cheaper. And there already are lots of roads. So, these vehicles could go to a lot of places instead of only a select few elevators above the tunnels. And of course you could actually mix autonomous and regular traffic as autonomous vehicles get smarter. Like is already happening in parts of the world. Also, the main issue in cities is not tunneling into a central location but distributing goods all over the city using e.g. cargo bikes, small vans, etc. Many of those are already electric and typically operate from distribution centers on the edge of the cities. Banning regular traffic out of the cities would free a lot of space for that. Some cities are already doing that or at least strongly discouraging car traffic. E.g. London, Paris, Amsterdam, etc. have large car free zones and lots of modern electric delivery vehicles.