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This just sounds like union busting under the guise of automation.
Do you think we should still have elevator operators?
I don’t necessarily disagree with automation. I think the article is being disingenuous with their reasons for it.
To start off, the posts headline is inaccurate. It’s not against any law to have automated transport systems. The US has had automated train systems for 50+ years. They were designed that way from the start though. The article is complaining about systems that were not designed with automation in mind. They are not being retrofitted because of this particular regulation that was designed to protect existing workers.
From the posted article:
Since they mention BART, their own website says removing train operators does basically nothing to solve their financial issues. It just moves costs around and ignores the insane cost to retrofit it in the first place that would likely take decades to recoup.
From budget data I could find, the BART police department was a larger slice of the budget than the train operators.
Hmmm. When it's retrofitting, I tend to agree with you. It's a stopgap for building a new integrated system that was built from the ground up with no operators in mind. Also, regarding BART, that's a passenger system, which is its own can of worms. A ton of wheat, in a receptacle designed for it, does not generally start making trouble that you haven't thought of yet.
People, though...
Do you think we should try to comprehend what we read?
Sorry, I don't speak Latin.
Skill issue
ironically they only introduced these regulations after turning public transport into a publicly-owned company? at least it says so in the article.
to me it sounds like it's actually about making public transport more expensive and therefore less competitive to the end user which will ensure that people buy more cars, which generates more revenue for the economy overall.
They’re working on changing that whole public thing…
The transit authority in my state is already in one of these agreements.
No private sector entity will agree to something like that with a union in place. Corporate America despises unions.
Yeah, but... If we're paying people to just sit on a train for 8 hours at a time, never actually doing anything....
Then they're really there for when things go wrong. Like pilots, the plane flies itself 99% of the time, they're just there to take over when things arent going according to plan.
In Sydney, Australia we have fully automated subway with no drivers in them, called the metro
when some US president once visited china, he visited a construction site where they used shovel to excavate the ground. he asked "why no bagger?" and the chinese president replied "sothat we create more jobs". the US president said "next time, tell them to use a spoon instead!"
i think it's a fitting description. why bother with workplaces; everything that can be reasonably automated should be automated; in the end, it will be anyways. who are we kidding? how long is this game of not-doing-things-the-way-they're-better supposed to go on? 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? then what? we'll face the future one way or another; why not try to face it in a clear and straightforward way?
funny that this has flipped around now, with china's many entirely automated factories that can run without internal lighting
The risk factors of a airplane and subway train are so different and you must surely know that
Obviously brother, just making an analogy.
Ok, but you do realize a subway can still catch fire, right? Or someone could have a heart attack. Just because you won't fall to your death, doesn't mean people can't still die.
I just don't understand what good would a human conductor do in those scenarios that sensors and workers at the station couldn't? Trains go in a tight loop with regular stops on the ground in special tunnels and are under constant watch. A single person adds no real line of protection to that system
Guy having a heart attack. Operator overides the controls, contacts 911, sets an ambulance to show up at the stop that will be fastest for EMS. In my city, sometimes the elevators are down at certain stations. So maybe the operator drives past the next 2 stations without stopping all while being in contact with 911 operators, and at the same time using the intercom to alert other passengers on other cars (since trains are multiple cars long) what is going on so they don't get mad that the train didn't even stop at their stop.
An automated system would have just went to the next stop as normal. Stopped, opened the doors for 30 seconds, and then resumed as normal.
Fire - If a small fire broke out, the train operator could stop the train, wherever it is, open the doors, use the intercom to evacuate the train. Then use communications to stop all other nearby trains so they don't hit any passengers now jumping off a train onto other train tracks. Then, when everyone is safe, use the fire extinguisher.
If automated systems can even detect a fire, the most it could physically do is stop the train, and open the doors. Computer code can't physically use a fire extinguisher, and I wouldn't trust AI in an emergsncy situation to get people to safety.
Can't all that be done by remote control from HQ?
Yes, but quicker and more efficiently. Plus there would maybe be hands free to run around with the extinguishers, who knows even the public might act upon an event
But we all know the bleakest outcome is the only possible outcome. Firy infinite metro line