Smart Trains With No Driver
December 7, 2018
Everyone's talking about autonomous cars, wondering if they'll soon be whizzing along our roads. This hype is surprising, because many vehicles in other transport systems have been moving about driverless for years, or even decades. In industrial environments and harbours, automated transport systems have been in place for over 60 years. And most of the metros are highly automated. These systems just haven't received much media attention, maybe because they pose fewer ethical and regulatory challenges than autonomous cars.
Setting targets for trains
It's astonishing that autonomous trains in public transport have rarely been the subject of discussion until now. But that, too, is changing, and just recently a substantial increase in automation was announced at a major railway fair. The French railways want to make key technological advances over the next five years to bring prototype driverless trains into operation. In Australia, remotely controlled and partially autonomous freight trains have been operating for some months. In Switzerland too, the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) and the Südostbahn AG (SOB) have tested automation technologies without passengers.
It's still difficult to evaluate the benefits of autonomous cars, whereas the benefits of driverless solutions in railways are quite clear. And it's not just about the costs you save; I see the greatest advantage in the regularity of operations – for the performance and timing of operations will vary very little. What's more, these trains can be better controlled: timetable changes, for instance, can be implemented more swiftly and reliably.
More regularity means improved punctuality. If operations run more smoothly, there are fewer delays, and if they do occur, they can be resolved more quickly.
Read more at Phys
