Driverless cars and auto insurance

[Jurgis]

Here we go: http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/self-driving/brits-can-now-insure-their-driverless-cars

 

Found the link on SI

[rkbabang]

How about a transportation system that merges rail and drones. The drones lift people or goods to the nearest high speed rail line, built conveniently on the now abandoned interstate system. It lands on the train on a specially designed car which is moving at 150 mph It then rides until it either needs to hit the air to switch trains or it gets close enough to it's destination to just take the last leg on it's own. The rail network is greatly expanded and may consist of single cars traveling in lightly traveled areas. Trains don't really switch tracks so much as drones switch trains, usually at intersections where they are timed to pass through at the same time with a swarm of drones jumping from one train to the next.

 

Combines what both technologies are good at, cheapest form of overland transportation with drones providing service for the last mile or ten.

 

I'm already invested in Berkshire, I better get invested in Amazon before the world catches on;)

 

I kind of like the hyperloop tech for intercity traveling at much greater speed than 150mpg (600-700 mph) in evacuated tunnels and drones for intracity short distance travel.  This would leave airports for intercontinental travel only, at least until they put hyperloop tunnels under the oceans.

 

I was pretty sure I'd get a hyperloop reply, which I think will be awesome technology if they can figure out the little things like how to actually build a viable working model. I'm not sure whether it would be lower cost than rail, it would seem to be a faster more expensive way to travel. Well worth it over longer or heavily traffic distances. I don't see it totally replacing rail for many things like transporting high volume low cost goods like coal or agricultural products or large/heavy equipment.

 

I was just having fun with my thought experiment mixing drones and fast moving trains, you've now expanded it to include uber-fast trains. I thank you for that.  The Hyperloop will now form the arteries of my transportation system, along with High speed rail as the vessels, and drones as the capillaries. You take the Hyperloop to go from LA to NY or maybe just from New York to New Jersey. You ride a drone from your house to hitch a ride on the high speed light rail to get to work.

 

I'll buy that.  And to get to the other side of the planet you hop on a suborbital space craft and get to anywhere on Earth in under 2 hours.