wait hear me out. what if the driverless cars had special roads built for them and they were larger so they could carry more passangers!
this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2026
447 points (97.5% liked)
Fuck Cars
16232 readers
534 users here now
A place to discuss problems of car centric infrastructure or how it hurts us all. Let's explore the bad world of Cars!
Rules
1. Be Civil
You may not agree on ideas, but please do not be needlessly rude or insulting to other people in this community.
2. No hate speech
Don't discriminate or disparage people on the basis of sex, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, or sexuality.
3. Don't harass people
Don't follow people you disagree with into multiple threads or into PMs to insult, disparage, or otherwise attack them. And certainly don't doxx any non-public figures.
4. Stay on topic
This community is about cars, their externalities in society, car-dependency, and solutions to these.
5. No reposts
Do not repost content that has already been posted in this community.
Moderator discretion will be used to judge reports with regard to the above rules.
Posting Guidelines
In the absence of a flair system on lemmy yet, let’s try to make it easier to scan through posts by type in here by using tags:
- [meta] for discussions/suggestions about this community itself
- [article] for news articles
- [blog] for any blog-style content
- [video] for video resources
- [academic] for academic studies and sources
- [discussion] for text post questions, rants, and/or discussions
- [meme] for memes
- [image] for any non-meme images
- [misc] for anything that doesn’t fall cleanly into any of the other categories
Recommended communities:
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
As a European, I hope this shit stays off of our streets forever.
Yay for more traffic accidents!
Idk if you realize how many less car accidents europeans have per capita
We could have even less if we allow progress.
And do you know what trains and trams crash into? Its not other trains and trams...
Trains sometimes crash into each other. It isn't common, but it happens
Or the environment.
Actually in my city a tram crashed on another tram literally two days ago. Also train hitting trains is a thing. But yes, trams and trains crashing into trams and trains because the tram/train driver's action sure is near zero compared to the number of trams crashing into cars because of the car driver's action.
Hello Rotterdam!
👋
They do
I was going to comment that the only train I have personally seen hit something, hit a car.
Also, humans driving cars, because it's pretty easy to have fewer 'crashes' when you just omit a heap of crashes.
“the analysis excluded minor incidents involving Waymos that would likely not have been reported to the police had a human been driving,”
¯_(ツ)_/¯ I get your point but also I get their point, they are trying to make the data comparable to the data they are comparing too. It just so happens it makes them look better too.
What about driverless trains?
Double less crashes.
I honestly doubt it, since the vast majority of crashes occur when there's something not working (e.g. signal won't turn to green, track detection system not working) - scenarios where driverless trains need human intervention anyway.
There was very nasty train crash in Spain a few years ago because the driver was speeding and the train derailed.
Exceptions prove the rule. On top of that, that crash occurred on the border between two train control systems (ETCS and ASFA, if I remember correctly), where there ended up being quite a gap in train protection. As much as the problem was the speeding driver, it was also a dangerous gap in train control where whoever planned it really screwed up.
Sure, my point is that as rare as they are, there are human error accidents that could be avoided if we switched to self-driving trains (and they proved safe). They are already in use at airports and commuter lines.
I think he was joking
You think people would do that? Go onto the internet and tell jokes?
Are… are you serious?
I'm the joker, baby.
OK ok ok ok OK... (lol) yes, he was probably joking. I thought it might be interesting to add the information anyway, in case anyone took it seriously (seems like a logical conclusion at first glance, after all)
I got the joke. :)
Interesting. Same data in USA says the robo taxis were almost twice as likely per million miles (I last checked few months to half a year ago) to be in incident as human drivers.
As usual, Musk is most likely the one skewing the statistics.
His cars, whether on commercial "full self driving" mode (which it isn't, at all) or whether they're the commercial robo-taxis, have all kinds of driving and safety issues. Almost everyone other than Musk has very few issues.
Or bicycles!
Driverless bicycles!
Those by definition can't exist - a bicycle must be powered through muscles for a significant portion, about 25-50% at least. Even electric bicycles still are mainly muscle-powered.
So you're saying that technically they're all driverless?
Electric bicycle enthusiasts are in shambles
I like Waymo. Took LA decades to build out three more stops on the D line. The argument is retarded.
Said like someone who's never been to a place with a halfway decent rail system. But yeah its the trains fault, not the moneyed interest forcing you to take a single cabin rail car that can ride on surface streets, and barely recognize a person in a crosswalk.
Maybe because the car industry keeps lobbying against public transport
A larger reason (though not nearly the only one) was Beverly Hills lobbying against the influx of homeless people it would be bringing in. Not to mention all the permits, beaurocracy and difficulty of burrowing beneath an active city. But sure! Whatever the reason, trains aren't gonna extend themselves in the time I can hail a very real Waymo.
I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice. I bike or take the train to any destination that is practical to do so. But what isn't practical is screaming "fuck cars," especially Waymo -- an electric car that takes me safely and directly to my destination -- in a city where the only other options are pies in skies.
Taxis have been a thing for a long time, why do you want a car that runs on predictions? Not to mention the cameras that can probably stare at you from every angle not to mention that most likely operators from third world country can see that data easily.
Public transport is one of the most optimal solution to any city, it's cheap, you'll get some steps in since it doesn't drop you directly to your location, cleans up the air and reduces noise.
Because the argument is specifically driverless cars vs trains
100% true, but currently the areas these waymos are active aren't going to install trains or rail lines. The Phoenix area Waymo operates in for instance is your typical asphalt hellscape that wouldn't work well with trains because of how the area was designed for cars (rip). Not ideal but I rather drive next to a waymo than a human in these areas, the humans are insane drivers.
Yes yes fuck cars but this is an improvement imo
Phoenix is a perfect city for trolley/tram lines. You have perfectly straight gigantic roads laid out in an uninterrupted grid. It would be quite easy to run rails down the middle of the streets.
Dear GOD this city looks like a synthetic nightmare, I love not living around any centrally planned cities.
Phoenix has many problems, I don't think that's one of them.