Driverless buses are coming to UK roads, with Milton Keynes and Sunderland leading the charge.
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Are We Ready For Driverless Buses?
If they’re on a set of parallel metal beams on the ground, absolutely!
The moment I read “roads” I realized this is not about USB or busses of that sort. I was curious what driverless might improve here
no i don’t want driverless anything unless they’re on private roads; enough is enough.
I’m actually going to disagree a bit here and say, I think it somewhat makes sense.
Buses have specific routes, and can be trained to perfect those. Not all routes will be suitable, but some will.
Hope they make a public database for these routes, and are able to use the self driving data to learn from it.
Agreed - in my area busses drive on dedicated bus routes with no other vehicles. Realistically, they should be trollies. There’s no reason that it couldn’t be automated.
Well, considering that they’re canceling the one which was running in Fife (?) because it required two drivers, I don’t think so.
I’m sort of okay with driverless trains — they are pretty much/ideally limited to the railway tracks. This has too many possibilities for error for my taste.
Perhaps the real question is, are we ready for a world without bus drivers? I think they’re a net positive in the daily commute.
Took the bus a lot as a kid/young adult. Some bus drivers were nice, but most were rude or basically had no impact on my commute. I’ve had a driver hit on me and then miss my stop multiple times after I declined. At least where I am, busses don’t stop at all stops unless there’s someone that needs to be picked up or dropped off and will regularly just skip stops if they’re running behind, regardless of how packed the bus or stop is. Have a bike, or need wheelchair access? The bus driver is going to give you attitude the whole time, if they stop for you at all. Some bus drivers were nice and would remember you and say hi, or help people who had questions, but it was a minority in my experience.
I’m not saying we’re ready to move to AI, but I can’t imagine what kind of positive they’re adding to your life that it is seen as a valid reason to keep them if they’re not actually needed. Like if they’re actually nice people, I would love to make sure they’re working jobs that need to be done and could use the injection of positivity you’re describing.
Ugh, sorry to hear about your experiences. Yeah, I’m not going to bat for all bus drivers. I’m speaking in favour of having a human onboard, because the passengers aren’t necessarily an ideal crowd either…
The role of being a proxy authority figure can definitely turn some asshole drivers further to the dark side… I don’t want to come off as defending those.
This is a very good point. It makes me a bit uneasy, even though it is still better than driverless cars. Aside from this, I also have mixed feelings about the fact that every pound being put into development and purchasing of these busses could have been put into the expansion of existing routes…
And it’s not even something that would drastically improve my experience if it was fully successful. Busses are already one of the safest modes, being safer than trains in several countries. Maybe I’ve missed something and someone can correct me, but this feels like throwing money at technology for technology’s sake.Yeah, the reasoning seems to have been “Think how much we’ll save on driver salaries! Plus, the computer will never unionise or cause a fuss about hours.” That’s the only arguments I can think of.
At the same time, I can think of several times I’ve been glad to have a human driver on the bus, mostly to do with obnoxious fellow travelers…
Oh god, not another fucking pod.
This article reads like a paid advertisement. The whole website looks like it’s just shilling techbro bullshit.
Remember kids, always reject corporatization of public services.
surely it doesnt make economic sense to buy a smartbus over a dumbbus and paying a driver. this seems like a weird move
Disasters in waiting More expensive to maintain, less flexibility
The one in the picture seems to be going on a rampage through a shopping centre.
Self driving cars are bad enough. How is a self driving bus going to navigate crowded city streets?
