3 ms·

Just curious, if the rails are such an issue, is it not just cheaper to drive the cars (no need for self driving?) or is paying someone to do it not worth the c

by foota 3y ago

Just curious, if the rails are such an issue, is it not just cheaper to drive the cars (no need for self driving?) or is paying someone to do it not worth the complexity savings? Or are there other downsides to not having the rail?

bluGill 3y ago
A tunnel is round, driving cars on that and passing is hard. Narrow tunnels especially
Animats 3y ago
Either each car needs a driver or you need something to keep all the trailers precisely lined up. One new system has that; a human drives the "locomotive" and the trailers have automated steering to follow the lead vehicle precisely enough to not bump into traffic in the other direction. This is still experimental. At the other end of the line, outside the tunnel, there's a whole rail yard. The different kinds of cars have to be sorted out, loaded, and unloaded. So there's a need for a big staging area. Here's an overview of traditional tracked systems.[1] I've tried to find a video of the back end system and yard, but nobody seems to make such videos. It's too boring. [1] https://www.robbinstbm.com/products/tunnel-boring-machines/back-up-systems/ https://www.robbinstbm.com/products/tunnel-boring-machines/b... [2]
- ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
  >It's too boring. I see what you did there.
- foota 3y ago
  I guess I'm trying to understand how much of an opportunitythere is here, and assuming the existing tunnel boring companies have at least considered this, I guess the most possible gain you could get out of this would be whatever it would cost to pay people to do it manually (otherwise, the pros would out weight the cons, and a company would have done it that way). But I wouldn't have thought it would cost that much to have people do this, so Im left unsure how large the opportunity is here.
- drewmol 3y ago
  <rubber tired vehicle back-up systems tired vehicles
- TeMPOraL 3y ago
  > Either each car needs a driver or you need something to keep all the trailers precisely lined up. A perhaps very stupid question, but why not make the cars self-driving the way we built self-driving robots from LEGO as kids? That is, line-following cars. It's effectively a virtual track - but I imagine painting a line or building it from cheap plastic would be cheaper than putting actual rail tracks in, and unlike generic driving automation, line-following is an old, well-understood and solved problem.

by foota 3y ago

bluGill 3y ago

A tunnel is round, driving cars on that and passing is hard. Narrow tunnels especially

Animats 3y ago

Either each car needs a driver or you need something to keep all the trailers precisely lined up. One new system has that; a human drives the "locomotive" and the trailers have automated steering to follow the lead vehicle precisely enough to not bump into traffic in the other direction. This is still experimental. At the other end of the line, outside the tunnel, there's a whole rail yard. The different kinds of cars have to be sorted out, loaded, and unloaded. So there's a need for a big staging area. Here's an overview of traditional tracked systems.[1] I've tried to find a video of the back end system and yard, but nobody seems to make such videos. It's too boring. [1] https://www.robbinstbm.com/products/tunnel-boring-machines/back-up-systems/ https://www.robbinstbm.com/products/tunnel-boring-machines/b... [2]

ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
>It's too boring. I see what you did there.
foota 3y ago
I guess I'm trying to understand how much of an opportunitythere is here, and assuming the existing tunnel boring companies have at least considered this, I guess the most possible gain you could get out of this would be whatever it would cost to pay people to do it manually (otherwise, the pros would out weight the cons, and a company would have done it that way). But I wouldn't have thought it would cost that much to have people do this, so Im left unsure how large the opportunity is here.
drewmol 3y ago
<rubber tired vehicle back-up systems tired vehicles
TeMPOraL 3y ago
> Either each car needs a driver or you need something to keep all the trailers precisely lined up. A perhaps very stupid question, but why not make the cars self-driving the way we built self-driving robots from LEGO as kids? That is, line-following cars. It's effectively a virtual track - but I imagine painting a line or building it from cheap plastic would be cheaper than putting actual rail tracks in, and unlike generic driving automation, line-following is an old, well-understood and solved problem.