6 votes

Sydney's driverless Metro completes first full run on NorthWest corridor

3 comments

  1. [3]
    Octofox
    Link
    Awesome. I have no idea why we don't have driverless trains everywhere already. It seems simpler than driverless cars in every single way. Hopefully this lowers the cost of public transport a lot...

    Awesome. I have no idea why we don't have driverless trains everywhere already. It seems simpler than driverless cars in every single way. Hopefully this lowers the cost of public transport a lot so we can get a lot more trains and drop the ticket price.

    3 votes
    1. [2]
      vakieh
      Link Parent
      The driver costs of trains (while far from insignificant) aren't nearly as high a percentage of their running costs compared with cars etc, and the extra costs involved in the sensor systems and...

      The driver costs of trains (while far from insignificant) aren't nearly as high a percentage of their running costs compared with cars etc, and the extra costs involved in the sensor systems and associated support systems and people take away even more than that.

      In addition knowing the way the NSW government handles things I can 110% guarantee not a cent of any savings will be passed on to users, let alone taxpayers - the more likely scenario is a project management fuckup and a price increase.

      7 votes
      1. NaraVara
        Link Parent
        The Washington DC metro used to have automated trains with the driver there being a failsafe. They had to go back to manually driven cars because deferred maintenance eventually started raising...

        the more likely scenario is a project management fuckup and a price increase.

        The Washington DC metro used to have automated trains with the driver there being a failsafe. They had to go back to manually driven cars because deferred maintenance eventually started raising the fault-rate to unacceptable levels (trains rear-ending each other, catching fire, etc.)

        Having it work requires decent safety inspections and well maintained sensors, braking systems, etc. When that stuff starts to break the train doesn't know how to adapt. And obviously a driver who is conditioned to not really pay attention can't react fast enough to stop a moving train if it's slow on the brake.

        3 votes