5 ms·

There have been self-driving trains for some time now (Nuremberg, London Docklands). There are more people to be responsible for on a train and I do not see why

• jacquesm 12y ago
  Trainstations are somewhat controlled, bus-stops are not, they can be just about anywhere.
  • masklinn 12y ago
    Which is relevant to the difficulty of designing a self-driving bus, but says nothing about any driver responsibilities outside of driving.
    • robryk 12y ago
      Not really. In case of a problem on board a train (unrelated to train's motion; for example, a medical emergency or a rowdy passenger), the train can usually be met by someone at the next station. In case of a bus, much more often there is no one to meet it at the next bus stop.
• leoedin 12y ago
  The London docklands railway have a staff member on board who opens/closes the doors and starts the train moving. It's a less skilled (and therefore almost certainly cheaper) job than driving a train, but it's still a person onboard. Apparently not all the trains in Nuremberg are staffed, so perhaps it does work? I suppose the train driver is often segregated from the passengers in a way which makes them almost absent anyway. It will be interesting to see if completely unstaffed buses are adopted anywhere, and if that proves succesful. I'd imagine that security wise a staff member isn't really necessary during busy day time routes (but then conversely that's probably when they'd be the most cost effective and provide the highest utility).