Locomotive Engineers

Darius says

There's too much money at stake for the railroad companies that they *will* try to make robo-locos work. Full-authority digital [computer] engine control ("FADEC") is already in use in helicopters and jet airliners because of the money they save on fuel.

I live in a major metropolitan area, and there's a train/road crossing with signs warning of automated trains being in use there. Computers won't have to "learn" the different types of signals and rules, as they will be programmed in by (fallible) humans.

There is/has been a lawsuit by a bunch of families of British servicemen and servicewomen who were killed in CH-47 helicopter crashes in which those helos had been converted to FADEC (they still had human pilots). The lawsuit blames the crashes on failure of the computerized throttle controls. (With FADEC, by design, the computer overrules the pilots' inputs to the throttle controls.)

So, with money as the driving force, *some* sort of computerized trains will be deployed. And likely, there will be some failures in which people die, because the computerized systems are created by fallible humans.

Jaakko (Low) says

In some parts of Europe, signaling and railway management systems are not developed enough to supports automatic trains. On top of that, we have huge variations of weather that makes it even more difficult for a machine to get enough reliable data to operate. I´m certain that in some future trains will be fully automated, but not likely within 20 years.

levi (Low) says

Legal issues are heavy and one accident can cause millions in damages and hundreds of deaths. There is also the issue of a train being multiple kilometres long. You will always need someone to oversee and deal with issues as they arise. I can see it but not within 20 years

Hayden Reininga says

Honestly I think that trains and railroads are too complex for robots to understand and there could be times where they have to go against what they were programmed to do in a scenario if it’s the best option which it won’t be able to do look at autonomous cars they’re not fully safe so why should we put them on trains it’s too dangerous for the time being

Ricky (Highly likely) says

With railroad companies leaning towards autonomous technology such as PTC, one man crew, and the invention of the autonomous freight train in Australia, locomotive engineering is possible to be seized. However, such doubts of how safe autonomous trains can be (especially moving hazardous loads), little evidence support the idea to become the next industry standard.

Isaac says

The robots could experience a failure, similar to what occurred on the DC Metro. They also wouldn't be capable of managing switching or local freight, as most of the switches are manual.

Ali says

Yes DLR Northern line are already automated a person is onboard only as a fail safe operative to keep on eye nothing goes wrong

J (No chance) says

How? There is no way they will learn all the rules and all the different types of signals.

a (Low) says

Robots will make the train crash!