this post was submitted on 24 Mar 2024
264 points (97.5% liked)

World News

39184 readers
2679 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

For what it's worth 2 out of 3 subway lines are already fully automated. They started in 2008.

Trams have the same issues as self driving cars though: you need to 100% reliably detect people in front of the carriage. And you can easily find tests with Teslas which just run over a child sized doll because they didn't detect it properly. The tech is just not there yet.

[–] Humanius 3 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I agree with you entirely that automated trams are more difficult than automated metro systems. However I do think that trams are a most likely a more easily solvable problem than automated cars.

  • Trams are restricted to their track, so the number of unique situations in which they can end up is more limited.
    Because of this you can model the environment in more detail.
  • Trams are large, heavy and commercial vehicles. So you can justify shelling out for more detailed sensors such as lidar etc, whereas on a Tesla you have to make due with merely a camera sensor.
  • You could potentially hire a dedicated person in a central location whose job it is to remotely get trams out of tricky situations.
    This would not remove the need for drivers outright, but could reduce the number of drivers you need per tram.

That is not to say automated trams are easy, or already viable. I'm just saying that they are likely more viable than automated cars will be in the nearby future.