Economy: Why Self-Driving Trains Will Come Sooner Than You Think

(Drivebycuriosity) - There is a lot ado about self-driving cars. Google and other companies are already experimenting with them - soon you will see these vehicles on the streets. I think that the arrival of self-driving trains (and self-driving locomotives) isn`t far away either.

There are 2 events which are speeding up the automatization of locomotives:

1. Last week a train derailed close to Philadelphia (USA), killing 8 people (wikipedia). For what reason ever, the train was far too fast. The manually controlled locomotive entered a dangerous curve with a speed of 106 miles per hour (around 170 km), where just 50 (80 km) were allowed (cnn). For what reason ever, the driving engineer had ignored the speed limit. That wouldn´t have happened with a self-driving train.

2. In Germany the union of locomotive drivers is preparing a strike for the coming weekend (spiegel.de). Then many Germans usually are traveling, because Germany celebrates "Pfingsten", a public 3-days holiday and the begin of a week long school vacations.  The unions are using the Pfingsten holidays to execute more pain to enforce their demands.  Millions - who would have used trains - have to chose between skipping their journey or to switch to cars, which will congest the streets and will cause more accidents - not to forget the additional burdens for the environment.

Selfdriving trains (and cars) are much more safer than vehicles controlled by people. They don´t ignore speed limits, they don´t text, they don´t drink, they don´t faint and they don´t commit suicide. They are cheaper than humans and drive more economical - and they don´t strike.

Say welcome to the self-driving train.