Autonomous vehicles (autonomous cars) have already developed by companies, but what about self-driving trains? Indeed, the German railway operator Deutsche Bahn and Siemens have announced that the world’s first automated self driving train will be operating in the city of Hamburg starting this summer.
But, wait a minute, aren’t some trains already operating without a driver? There are, in fact, some. There are driverless metro trains in many cities around the world, and they are becoming increasingly popular. One major difference is that these trains run on single tracks that can only utilized by self-driving trains and no other types of transportation.
They will be sharing the tracks with other regular, human-operated trains when travelling on the tracks operated by Deutsche Bahn. According to Deutsche Bahn CEO Richard Lutz, the advantage of this is that not only will these trains be more energy efficient. And punctual when compared to regular trains. But because they will be sharing an existing train track. There will be no need to spend money on building new tracks just for them.
Moreover, according to Siemens CEO Roland Busch, these driverless trains will be able to accommodate 30 percent more passengers. Which means that more people will be able to fit on board. Which may result in a reduction in the number of trips that have required. A human operator will still be present in the train to supervise the journey. But other than that, these trains have expected to drive themselves, according to current expectations.
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