A train runs on the Yamanote line in Tokyo. Photo: WIKIPEDIA
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Automatic train operation test conducted on Tokyo's Yamanote loop line

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@sensei258 - I imagine the same as when it happens to a human driven train. An attempt will be made to apply the brakes, but it will be too late, you can't stop hundreds of tons of metal and flesh very quickly.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

I am ok with driverless trains from a feasibility perspective, but can it really be true that there is a shortage of youngsters wanting to make a career of driving a train?  Or is the "shortage" story a ploy by rail companies to save money by hiring less drivers.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Driverless trains are ok. Cars not. But you still need conductors. Man with a knife, heart attack, drunken boninkai punters, wheelchairs, lost children etc.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Next will be cabdrivers and bus drivers. What an antisocial society we are moving towards to.

no not antisocial, just safer, driverless vehicles will be safer than the human variants in the not too distant future, never get drunk , never get sleepy, the multitude of cameras and sensors always pay attention

1 ( +2 / -1 )

to cope with a possible shortage of drivers amid its declining population

Have you seen te crowds in trains? Take a few off there and train them to be drivers.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Yeah I expected this to happen as some monorails in Tokyo and Kansai airport are already driverless. Next will be cabdrivers and bus drivers. What an antisocial society we are moving towards to.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

We used to buy cars for the joy of driving, but now to just move around, not even owning cars, but sharing ownership, hiring just for the ride like a smaller version of a bus or train or plane, it is just for the travel not the joy, so more and more we will let computers do it, like making things, they do it better and safer, as it will be with driverless Trains.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Indeed - I for one am looking forward to the day when my driverless car will have seats that face each other instead of facing forwards, and I can enjoy a beer with my fellow passengers. Nothing anti-social about that!

0 ( +0 / -0 )

no not antisocial, just safer, driverless vehicles will be safer than the human variants in the not too distant future, never get drunk , never get sleepy, the multitude of cameras and sensors always pay attention

Good point, no discussion there, i wholeheartedly agree.

Indeed - I for one am looking forward to the day when my driverless car will have seats that face each other instead of facing forwards, and I can enjoy a beer with my fellow passengers. Nothing anti-social about that!

If you look at it like that yes, you'd be correct sir.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Yeah I guess having the train stop at the right place is an important point. What would this automatic train do when someone jumps in front of it? Because on the busy Yamanote line, you know somebody will do that.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

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