HeaderDownBrown
Winger
Someone's good at copying and pasting....'easily replaced'TLDR version: don't kid yourselves, automation is already here.
And you don't understand how Cyber Physical Systems and automation works, do you?
I am currently working with a team developing object-avoidance systems for drones to operated autonomously in hazardous environments. Compared to that, moving a train along a set route at set speeds with set stops.... Honestly, the concept for this whole system is something that undergrads could crack out for a project. The whole rail infrastructure is already interconnected and a stones through away from adding this technology. If anything, the human driver is the weakest link and without it, we would have a safer and more reliable service. Have a look at some stats with regards to accidents and incidents: after mechanical malfunction, human factor the next biggest factor with many incidents citing "driver inattention" as the cause as they over speed around a bend or pass through signals. A CPS does not tire, does not become distracted, doesn't need a break - it just gets one with it.
The only thing stopping this is the inevitable disruption caused by industrial action as the drivers - if the Metro was being commission now, human drivers would not be part of the equation.
They have:
Autonomous trains - article from International Rail Journal
from the article:
Action like we have witnessed recently in the North East, as well as disruption to the commuters of the South East, along with what feels like a regular threat of action to disrupt the Tube (lead by the appropriately named Mike Ca$h) do the drivers no favours with the public. On the metro, they are probably on a higher income than 90% of the people who suffer their service daily. The wages of these drivers is ludicrously high for the complexity of their work - how much skill is really required? More than that of a nurse or a teacher? Do they face more hazards than that of a fireman or the police. Are they under more stress than a paramedic. A frontline squaddie on deployment...? Of course not. They pull and push a leaver to make their bus-on-wheels go or stop (obviously there is slightly more to it than that but come on, really, compared to other professions?) The reason for the wage is simple: the unions have being able to threaten vast amounts of disruption to the economy and hold the nation hostage.
- Fully-automated metros have been around since 1981 when the first line opened in Kobe, Japan.
- Rio Tinto completed the transition to full automatic driverless operation of its entire heavy-haul rail system in the Pilbara region of Western Australia on June 14 making it the world’s first fully-automated mainline rail network
- Full automation is already reaping benefits for Rio Tinto in terms of lower operating costs, shorter journey times, and greater reliability
- also improving the efficiency of scheduling, helping to eliminate bottlenecks on the network, and boosting productivity.
- Following 18 months of research, French National Railways (SNCF) completed its first test run in July with a remotely-controlled locomotive- hauled autonomous train, as part of a project to develop driverless passenger and freight train prototypes by 2022.
With a growing population and environmental targets, the development and modernisation of the mass transport systems is vital as is improvements with freight. Drivers are expensive, undependable and fallible. It won't be long before human drivers of such systems are an anachronism and soon, our children will be gobsmacked that we would have relied on something as unreliable as a human train driver.