• Poggervania@kbin.social
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    4 months ago

    I wish we could somehow make a huge self-driving car that could link up to other cars. Maybe we could even have specialized roads for them where they can go on rails or something to help conserve the car’s battery and even recharge it.

    • ChilledPeppers@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      yes, and we could add one more rail to make it not need a battery at all. I think that would be a nice addition, as batteries are expensive…

    • Flumpkin
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      4 months ago

      Yeah I often imagine something like a self driving podbike “robotaxi”. It weights ~65kg and needs a tiny fraction of the energy to reach 50kmh (30mph) in a city. Or better a longer version with 2 seats facing each other (for two people or for shopping bags).

      For longer travels you could even have “roll-on/roll-off” trains so you could get in from your home, roll on and then roll off while staying in a comfortable compartment.

      I’d love to know how a “robotaxi train” would compare with public transport in terms of embodied and expended energy. My guess is that it’s rather close and would be much more popular, and easier to maximize utilization, hence more easy to make real.

    • XTornado@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      I mean… I know that your are implying using trains… But trains don’t work on all situations, and something like you say that is a middle ground but that doesn’t depend on rails which is basically the limitating factor in some cases due the height differences or other related issues wouldn’t be that bad.

  • wildcherry
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    4 months ago

    My city used to have 19 tramlines and 4 trolleys a century ago

    Now we have zero and we are building one using a private-public funding-scheme.

    There’ve been accusation of corruptions. The tramline is still being built (almost 10 years now).

    • Kilgore Trout@feddit.it
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      4 months ago

      That’s a little too long for laying tracks and electrical lines.

      Although even in the Italian city I take for reference, Bologna, construction of line 1 started in 2023 and is expected to finish complete in 2026. If it was a private company with no external contract awarding, it sure wouldn’t take this long.

      • wildcherry
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        4 months ago

        Belgian here. Our ex PM’s two brothers have been caught printing fake money in connection with the cosa nostra. It may help to explain our tenancies to have never ending public work. Embezzlement doesn’t help not to overrun delays and budget.

        • olafurp@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          These project can be sped up massively if there is prior land available to use as rail. For example a road or street, too bad we don’t have those.

    • NotSteve_@lemmy.ca
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      4 months ago

      I’d ask if you’re in Ottawa but it could probably be any city in Canada or the US 🙃

  • Matriks404@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    I really hope that’s not true. I am not sure about state of self-driving cars, but there still should be a conscious person in the front seat.

    • XTornado@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      Oh yes it is true, there is a video of it. And yeah it’s like that, it requires som attention from the driver but people bypass security stuff they have or simply do the bare minimum so the auto driving continues. At the end they break the law regardless but it allows them this crazy stuff.

      The only exceptions are some cars that’s re completely driverless and act as taxis, I think Waymo and google has them as those are allowed to have blind people or people without a license and people usually are on back seats or similar.

      • uis@lemm.ee
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        4 months ago

        The only exceptions are some cars that’s re completely driverless and act as taxis, I think Waymo and google has them as those are allowed to have blind people or people without a license and people usually are on back seats or similar.

        At this point bus is better

      • nxdefiant@startrek.website
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        4 months ago

        If you buy a very expensive Mercedes with a subscription, and drive it at a very specific speed on a few very specific stretches of road in Germany, you can.