Driverless Cars - Another Piece Of The Puzzle: Comments on "Driverless Cars will Make Passenger Rail Obsolete," by Yair Wiseman [Opinion]
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: The impact of driverless cars is being increasingly discussed, with numerous scholars and experts trying to predict the future of cities when this technology becomes widespread adopted. While driverless cars present, in several scenarios, some clear advantages compared to human-driven cars, they rise a number of challenges that should be faced carefully and objectively. The article "Driverless Cars will Make Passenger Rails Obsolete" (Wiseman, this issue p. 22) predicts the replacement of passenger rails with driverless cars. Wiseman does not clarify the time horizon for this scenario to become a reality, but we believe it can only happen in the long term. First, "driverless cars" correspond to level 5 of automation, in which the car is fully automated under all roadway and environmental conditions that can be managed by a human driver. Most experts acknowledge that significant technical progress is needed before Level 5 automation is reliable, tested, and approved. Second, the term "passenger rail" includes all public transport running on rails.
Author: Teresa Galvao Dias
Institution: Universidade do Porto
Language: English
Subfield: Automotive Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2953235992