Hacker News Reader

Autonomous vehicles are already here and have arrived a couple of decades ago. They are referred to by the umbrella term "rail transport". There are whole transportation networks all around the world, including the US, that are entirely driverless.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_automated_urban_metro_...

View on HN

Very good point. If the car industry was really aiming for the benefits of transport without the need for a human at the wheel they could invest in rail transport, a technology that we already know works just fine. But of course the car industry makes... cars. So the only thing they really care about is in selling cars. Therefore, they instead invest in developing a new technology that may take years to be as beneficial as rail transport. And that will probably never be as beneficial as rail transport in many important ways, including very notably its impact on the environment and safety.

Autonomous != driverless

The link posted above mentions completely driverless trains as well (grade 4).

I live next to U Line in South Korea. It is driverless. Completely.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com