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Australian Autonomous Train is Being Called The 'World's Largest Robot' (sciencealert.com)
schwit1 shares a report: Mining corporation Rio Tinto says that an autonomous rail system called AutoHaul that it's been developing in the remote Pilbara region of Australia for several years is now entirely operational -- an accomplishment the company says makes the system the "world's largest robot." "It's been a challenging journey to automate a rail network of this size and scale in a remote location like the Pilbara," Rio Tinto's managing director Ivan Vella told the Sydney Morning Herald, "but early results indicate significant potential to improve productivity, providing increased system flexibility and reducing bottlenecks." The ore-hauling train is just one part of an ambitious automation project involving robotics and driverless vehicles that Rio Tinto wants to use to automate its mining operations. The company conducted its first test of the train without a human on board last year, and it now claims that the system has completed more than a million kilometers (620,000 miles) of autonomous travel.
Everything else is just semantics. Do a mechanical robot have to look like a human, or is it enough if the robot autonomously does the job he was designed for?
If the train slows down even by 25%, kinetic energy is approximately halved. Also, slowing down even a bit might give whatever is on the tracks more time to move out of the way.
A "semi autonomous" large ore train had to be deliberately derailed in November, because it was actually less destructive than letting it continue driving and come close to the "real" rail network or civilisation.
More info at https://www.abc.net.au/news/20...
So it's probably too early to claim success for autonomous trains, even though, as stated by earlier posters above, an autonomous train in the outback is a much easier challenge than one in the city. Far fewer level crossings, obstacles or pedestrians.
sustainable living
You may be joking with that comment, but with Australian unions this could actually be the case. For example Boeing had to redesign the two-man cockpits on their 767s to contain an unnecessary third person because the Australian unions demanded it, the only three-man 767 cockpits ever shipped.