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French Train Engineering Giant Alstom Testing Automated Freight Train (bbc.com)
French train engineering giant Alstom is to test automated freight trains in the Netherlands this year. From a report: The automated train prototype can travel for about 100km (60 miles) without driver intervention. Automation will free the train driver to focus on supervising the train's progress. The test's purpose is to provide a live demonstration that the train and the signal system can communicate effectively to drive the train. Alstom signed an agreement with the the Dutch infrastructure operator ProRail and Rotterdam Rail Feeding (RRF) to carry out the tests along the Betuweroute -- a 150km double track freight railway line connecting Rotterdam to Germany.
Yes we did and it was fuckin glorious. You could go wherever you wanted and not be tracked.
There are no self-driving cars deployed yet, only test vehicles and prototypes. That problem is not yet solved.
I would expect that the deployment of both automatic trains and aircrafts would beat the automobiles to automation as they pose simpler problems.
Automation will free the train driver to focus on supervising the train's progress.
I've already done that job. Decades ago, I took a ride on a TGV. I was sitting there sipping refreshments and thinking "Are we really going as fast as they say? It sure doesn't feel like it at all". So I looked out the window at the km markers and timed it with my wristwatch. Sure enough, we really were going that fast. I was also monitoring our progress on my paper map.
The thing is, that wasn't a paying position. In fact, I had to pay them a pretty penny for the privilege to do that.
True, but they're generally on a closed line with a central point of control and don't share rails with driver-operated trains who rely on signals to inform them as to whether they can or can't operate on a specific part of a line. This seems to be suggesting that autonomous trains would share rails with trains driven by humans. It doesn't seem like an insurmountable problem to solve but it's not the same as, for example, the Docklands Light Railway or airport rail systems that don't have to contend with traffic not controlled by a central system. Similar problem to that facing driverless cars but without quite the same degree of randomness or volume of vehicles.
*as he looks fondly on a photograph of a '70 Super Bee."
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Mark this down: Nobody reading this page today will live to see ubiquitous self-driving personal transportation in the United States. You think people get pissed when they think you're gonna take their guns? Wait until they try to take their steering wheels.
You are welcome on my lawn.
At the commuter train/LRT level, there are many systems that are completely automated - no drivers at all. Granted, the switching isn't too complex, but they can be commanded to switch tracks and manage themselves with supervision done at a central control station.
Operating at the full size train level is only a slightly more complex problem, mostly because now the tracks are owned by many people and you really need to get them all to install a common communication an d signalling system. (Right now trains can be monitored remotely).
The problem with Amtrak is also been solved - the technology has long existed and it's nowadays called Positive Control. The train will periodically beep and the driver has to hit a button. If the driver fails to hit the button, the train is brought to a stop automatically. This helps catch distracted and sleepy drivers.
Even speed limit enforcement has been automated away - if the train is coming too fast for the speed limit, the train automatically slows down. The unions generally hate this as it reduces the driver to a monkey. OTOH, the safety record of these systems is quite stellar, and most rail lines only experience it once before the system is rolled out on all the rolling stock.
Though, the Shinkasen drivers of Japan, where they not only have these systems in place but also very rigorous protocols and how they act (they lift their arms up as if to salute, then point at the control they are going to adjust, then adjust it - it looks like part of a military march) don't seem to be monkeying around, but seem to be very professional about it. Even though there is speed limit enforcement, they still can control the speed of the train, and still can get the train to be within a minute of the stated arrival time, even if weather conditions make it so the train has to slow down (it snows in Japan, too, and the trains have to operate in it at reduced speeds).
Have a look at Wikipedia’s article on rail transport; particularly, in the “history” chapter, the parts about electric and diesel locomotives. It might sway your opinion a bit. There’s been plenty of innovation and research in the railway industry, and I find it rather interesting that its early adoption of the electric motor (beginning with the 1890 underground line in London) was largely spurred by environmental concerns.
Indeed. Compared to cars, automating trains is way easier for obvious reasons (railroads, automated switches...).
Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
Trains are way much more self-driving friendly than cars and even though this is no piece of cake. After (if ever at all) autonomous trains have been tested and deployed at a large enough scale, we could assume that these approaches are reasonably mature at least under certain conditions. That would be the moment to start considering more difficult scenarios like cars. In fact, this is pretty much how the original evolution of these vehicles occurred: firstly, the highly-restricted trains and, only after having that technology working reasonably well, the fully unconstrained version (cars).
Custom Solvers 2.0 = Alvaro Carballo Garcia = varocarbas.
True, but they're generally on a closed line with a central point of control and don't share rails with driver-operated trains who rely on signals
Automated trains will also have a central point of control and obey signals. You cannot have SD car type radar or visual scanning ahead because trains need to begin braking long before a previous train ahead becomes visible.
So it makes no difference, since train drivers normally act as automatons anyway. They obey signals (which come up inside the cabs of many modern trains on modern lines - even if lineside ones are still there for older trains), and if they don't the brakes will apply automatically anyway if the situation requires. Drivers only need to make significant decisions in emergencies like supervising train evacuation. Incidentally, I have driven trains as a test engineer.
London Underground's Victoria line has been operating automatically for the last 50 years, although an operator is present, really only for passenger re-assurance and to keep the union happy.
Hence train driving is crying out for automation; almost all the infrastructure electronics is there already on modern lines.