Robo-Taxis are rolling, did you notice?

https://cmte.ieee.org/futuredirections/2023/07/25/robo-taxi-are-rolling-did-you-notice/

by kungfudoi • 3 years ago

33 25 3 years ago

cmte.ieee.org

ChatGTP2• 3 years ago

These things are like trains, but the tracks are virtual and are made of GPS coordinates.

amelius• 3 years ago

and the railroad crossings have no barriers.

coffeebeqn• 3 years ago

Furiously typing a blog post: wrong assumptions software engineers have about train tracks

foobarbecue• 3 years ago

... except trains have humans driving them.

ChatGTP2• 3 years ago

Actually not true, we have fully automated trains for some years now. I've ridden fully automated trains in many different cities around the world.

I've actually though about this for a while, not just replace cars with light rail and have small "pods" that you can call to come to your nearest station and hop on it, kind of like on demand rail. IMO this is kind of what has been built.

arghwhat3• 3 years ago

... except driverless trains have been around for decades is is relatively common for e.g. metros, and even trains that are decades old with drivers have been prepared for driverless operation from day one - usually just requiring a signalling upgrade.

Trivial to do self-driving when the tracks are real.

TRiG_Ireland• 3 years ago

The futurists keep re-inventing trains badly.

MengerSponge• 3 years ago

Trains: the crab of public mobility.

futurists:train::evolution:crab

FormerBandmate• 3 years ago

Less homeless people and more comfortable

euroderf• 3 years ago

If they don't excite kids, they're kinda missing the point eh.

MattRix• 3 years ago

This seems reductionist. The fact that these cars operate on regular roads that have human drivers (and pedestrians, bikes, etc) makes them much more complex than trains.

ripe• 3 years ago

Have these robotaxis really reached the "plateau of productivity" now?

The article doesn't say whether these ventures are profitable yet, or at least whether their losses are decreasing to zero.

How do their operating expenses compare with conventional taxi fleets? Don't they need constant monitoring and ready staff to address issues? Not to mention periodic maintenance of the geofenced area to update maps and rules as conditions change?

NeoTar• 3 years ago

Anyone know if there are any robo-taxis in operation in Europe?

I wonder if there are unique problems with European cities - e.g. Paris has a population density roughly fifteen times as great as Beijing() and Phoenix. European cities also tend* to have narrower streets than N. American cities.

(* Although this is complicated, and perhaps not a fair comparison. Paris draws its city limits very close - e.g. only about 2 million people of the 12 million people in the Paris metropolitan area actually live in Paris, so we should expect the population density to naturally be greater that a city which includes its suburbs).

AlotOfReading2• 3 years ago

There are some research teams that have done European demos, but honestly, no. The European automakers have the technical ability, but have repeatedly failed at organizational competence and understanding the right design mindset.

The EU regulatory environment has also been very different than the US on this subject. NHTSA and the various DMVs have been very laissez-faire about robotaxis, not banning them and allowing some level of (frankly unsafe) testing. The EU has taken a more traditional approach, where public road deployments will require type classification, which necessitates a whole bunch of legislation exist. For L2/L3 vehicles, that only recently came into existence. That framework doesn't exist for L4+ vehicles, so they cannot currently be deployed in Europe regardless of development status.

kekeblom• 3 years ago

Even if it was possible from a legislative perspective, European cities are also considerably harder to drive in than American cities that are cars first with wider lanes and clear grid layouts. Most parts of Europe also have more variable weather conditions.

But yeah, it is indeed also sad that Europe does not have a single credible horse in the race.

seanmcdirmid• 3 years ago

Beijing area wise is actually mostly rural, just a bit are dense suburbs and then of course anything inside the fifth ring road that we actually consider core Beijing. Think of Beijing as being a small state that consists of multiple counties, most of which are either mountains or farms.

Chongqing is even more rural with a bunch of small cities dispersed throughout, it isn’t really a single city with 39 million people.

Anyways. If someone has figured out self driving cars for chaotic (core) Beijing traffic, I don’t think any other city would pose that technology any problems.

Robo-Taxis are rolling, did you notice?

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