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London Unveils New Driverless Subway Trains
MikeChino writes London just unveiled its next-generation subway trains — and they're sleek, 100% automated, and WiFi-equipped. UK-based design studio Priestmangoode teamed up with Transport for London to develop the trains over a period of 3 years, and they feature open and airy interiors inspired by aviation design.
London also has driverless trains on its (more recent) Docklands Light Railway.
The reason it's news when driverless trains head to the Tube is nothing to do with technology and everything to do with industrial relations. London's Tube Drivers are extremely militant - it's normal to have a couple of strikes per year (sometimes over "normal" industrial disputes like pay, sometimes because, I suspect, they just want to remind people they can do it).
The current Mayor, who has been in post for around 6 years now and who is, to put it mildly, no friend of the unions, has been making threats about automation on and off ever since he was first elected. It's a dangerous game to play, because even the mention of automation is sometimes enough to trigger strikes - you can get rid of the drivers eventually (though probably keeping - lower paid - train attendants), but they can cause you a hell of a lot of pain during the transition.
They are piston shaped on purpose, they actually are the main way to cause ventilation of air in/out of the underground.
The Economist this week has a special report about how automation is going to make a lot of us unemployed, possibly in more permanent ways than previous industrial revolutions:
http://www.economist.com/news/...
The news is that London is getting them. Did you RTF title?
Driverless trains have existed in London for many years, too. For example on the DLR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...
Several lines of the London Underground already use Automatic Train Operation (ATO), where the train is fully controlled by software under normal conditions. There is still a "Driver", but all they do is operate the doors, make passenger announcements, and are ready to take over in the case of an emergency or a system failure.
In fact, the Victoria line has used ATO since it opened in the 1960s, and was the world's first major metro/subway line to do so.
Clearly you don't live in Britain, otherwise you'd understand how polite and accommodating we are.
If there are no seats, ask a fellow passenger if you can sit on their lap. They'll usually oblige, unless they have a very good reason.
Try it the next time you visit.
Summation 2
You think so?
As a Londoner, I've yet to encounter anyone who supported the Tube strikes: Everyone I know considers it near-criminal extortion and loves the notion of trains that aren't subject to strikes by drivers who are insanely over-paid already. The DLR has had them for years and nobody bats an eye.
What makes you think people need to be bribed with Wifi to get driverless trains into use?
So.. it has come to this