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Replacing train drivers, now that is funny, we could not even get rid of the guards without massive strike intervention and now we have a labour Government even less likely to happen, but a debate for a different thread.
 
They were using an advanced sort of system that I don't pretend to understand, but the point is, it brought them straight to us
Hope your Mum is OK Cobbs.

What3words is accurate to 3sqm. If you go on the website with a cellphone it will give you the three words that correspond to your current geolocation. People have been found halfway up mountains in fog using it.
 
This is really about whether people will ever give up their own personal transport and be prepared to use a supplied autonomous product(s).
I think the obstacles to that are FAR greater than the glassy eyed optimists think. Both technologically and societally.
Driverless cars is verging on science fiction IMHO.
Not sure why it's even being talked about - it doesn't solve any problems which couldn't be solved in easier and more reliable ways.
Just think of a busy town street with dozens of cars moving through - it'd only take one of them to go out of order to cause chaos. Could be just a bit of bird shi t on a sensor for instance.
 
@TRITON being into your ebikes, who is the asian company people seem to buy the frame / motor / battery from and then once imported they get the rest of the parts to complete the bike. I have spoken to two lots of cyclist and both said they imported the core ebike bits from asia and one of them wrote down the company name for me but I have lost the paper.


I cant help sorry, so I've asked on an Ebike forum im on and should get the answer to you soonish.
Owner of that forum built something similar, and put together a rather nice bike, so there is at least that thread about it.
Failing any replies I'll hunt down that info on that forum
 
We haven't replaced train drivers as there is very little benefit when one driver is transporting hundreds of people, the technology has existed for years. This is a different argument but we need to think carefully about replacing human jobs with technology, people need work or our society needs to be radically different.
I certainly agree that we need to be careful of what we wish for.

As for train drivers, they are subject to the same limitations as other drivers. They get tired, distracted, annoyed, sick etc etc. They can ignore speed limits and jump red lights with arguably bigger consequences.

My sister took a direct train to penzance from bristol a few weeks back and ended up having to change trains as they didn't have a driver to replace the current one. Wouldn't have been an issue if it was automated.

It would make far more sense to show automation can work on the heavily regulated train system first, rather than releasing it onto the wild and wonderful road system of the uk.

That said I am not advocating for automation.
 
Finally made it to the end of the thread - had to resort to my personal jetpack after my autonomous subscription-taxi clocked off to recharge at the local cold fusion plant...

Don't think eFuel has been mentioned yet - https://www.efuel-alliance.eu/efuels/what-are-efuels

Not read v much about it, but it represents a route to using renewable energy sources to power transport without batteries or major technology changes in storage, transport or point of use technologies.

I'll get the popcorn...
 
How safe does it need to be? Safer than human drivers or way safer than that?
It's a difficult moral question. We accept a certain number of (human caused) deaths by driving mistakes every year, but any car company offering an autonomous car with the equivalent safety record would be sued off the face of the planet.

Personally I'd be very happy to have a self driving car for the dull tasks (commutes, motorway journies) and I'd be very happy to see quite a lot of humans no longer driving (given the standards of many of those fleshy robots currently behind the wheel).
 
Let’s be honest, this isn’t about saving the environment is it?
Not for me, and I suspect many others. Cleaner air in built up areas is one of the most important factors to me, together with lower running costs.
Those with deep pockets may have other reasons like being able to beat most German production cars off at the lights?! 😆
 
I can agree to a certain extent. To be honest I'm amazed at how well our roads work considering we can be passing at 60mph with only a white line to separate us.

But I don't believe self driving cars are as good as most humans and won't be for a long time, if at all. Our 'processing' power is just much better. Adding assists to compliment drivers makes more sense to me.

We haven't even removed the drivers on trains yet and they go forward or backwards along a pre-determined route.
The TFL have wanted to remove all the drivers on the underground for years. The only thing that has stopped them is the unions.
 
Driverless cars is verging on science fiction IMHO.
Not sure why it's even being talked about - it doesn't solve any problems which couldn't be solved in easier and more reliable ways.
Just think of a busy town street with dozens of cars moving through - it'd only take one of them to go out of order to cause chaos. Could be just a bit of bird shi t on a sensor for instance.
Is that your Luddism tendency showing through Jacob? 😉
 
much better to go for smaller cars in general and to get away from the idea that bigger is necessarily better
We should also get away from the idea that bigger is necessarily worse. Why not consider a vehicle's efficiency rather than its size? One of our cars is a BMW 420 that is bigger than most cars I have had in the past, but also the most economical. I suggest that economy is more important than size.
 
Even with all the things you mentioned there is no reason all that should weigh so much. The only reason it does is because people want a big car that is a living room on wheels. Even worse are the 4x4's that are not needed and cart around even more weight for no reason whatsoever,
There is no reason for cars to weigh less either. Weight is not important. Large & heavy cars can be more economical than smaller and lighter cars. Why not consider a car's economy rather than its size or weight?

As an example, my first car was a 1966 850cc Mini. It used 50% more fuel than my current BMW yet had much worse performance, far less comfort and weighed far less.
 
The problem for driverless cars in this part of the world would be the narrow roads. They are two way, but it's often only possible for one vehicle to fit down them. There are passing places but these are unmarked .so it depends very much on local knowledge, or paying attention to all the likely places where two cars can safely pass, whilst driving.

During the summer months there are often stand -offs between holiday makers who find themselves unable to reverse their vehicles the several hundred yards needed to find a wider part of the road. Adding driverless cars to this mix, would certainly prove interesting. :giggle:
 
We haven't even removed the drivers on trains yet and they go forward or backwards along a pre-determined route.

As you rightly point our trains still always have a driver or similar on them,

We haven't replaced train drivers as there is very little benefit when one driver is transporting hundreds of people, the technology has existed for years.

The TFL have wanted to remove all the drivers on the underground for years. The only thing that has stopped them is the unions.
There are plenty of driverless trains around the world. The example I am most familiar with is the Copenhagen metro system where they rarely have any staff at all on the trains.
 
That doesn't add up; you'll still have the same number of people wanting to travel, probably at similar times, it just changes what vehicle they're travelling in and might free up some car parking spaces.
The only way congestion is reduced is by getting people to travel together, a radically different times or not at all (remote working etc).
It does add up. One person in a car takes up a disproportionate amount of ground area. Yes mass transport is the right answer as well as bicycling for short trips but people always favour zero physical effort and non shared space if given the choice.
 
It's still just science fiction, along with flying cars.

We've had sat navs for nearly two decades now, but they're still not completely reliable. Mobile phone reception still isn't over all the UK.
Unfortunately you’re basing your observations on the situation in a third world country, UK, look at China and you will see a very different story.
 
The problem for driverless cars in this part of the world would be the narrow roads. They are two way, but it's often only possible for one vehicle to fit down them. There are passing places but these are unmarked .so it depends very much on local knowledge, or paying attention to all the likely places where two cars can safely pass, whilst driving.

During the summer months there are often stand -offs between holiday makers who find themselves unable to reverse their vehicles the several hundred yards needed to find a wider part of the road. Adding driverless cars to this mix, would certainly prove interesting. :giggle:
I think you will find a driverless car would be far more adept at reversing than the majority of current drivers….
 

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