China Just Unveiled A Driverless Train That Uses White Painted Lines Instead Of Rails
Andrius BoredPanda staff
China is going for another world’s first with their new ‘ART’ train design which mixes bus, tram and train all in one. Except instead of following the usual metal rails, it follows the dotted white lines painted on the road.
ART stands for Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit, and its maker, Chinese rail transit firm CRRC, is calling it a “smart bus”. The driverless 30-meter long bus is fully electric and can travel over 40km on a full charge. While it’s guided by the white lines on the pavement, the sensors along its route (combined with sensors on the vehicle itself) help it follow the ‘virtual rails’ and adapt to its surroundings and unexpected situations in real time.
The first model is able to fit 300 passengers across three carriages (with up to 500 in future configurations), and it runs on rubber tires instead of metal rails.
The design is aimed at the communities that can’t afford the immensely expensive subway or tram projects. For example, it costs up to $102 million to build a kilometer of a subway track, as compared to about $2 million for a standard length ART bus, according to a report by Chinese state media Xinhua.
A 4 mile (6.5 km) ART line will be built in the Chinese city of Zhuzhou, with operations starting in 2018.
(h/t: demilked)
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What do you think ?
This is great, but is it "hackable" by drawing new lines with chalk ?
Probably a specialized paint, but that was my first thought.
FFS, doesn't anybody read?! "While it’s guided by the white lines on the pavement, the sensors along its route (combined with sensors on the vehicle itself) help it follow the ‘virtual rails’ and adapt to its surroundings and unexpected situations in real time."
yeah, but what about @$$hats who use road colored paint? It might block those elements as well...
NO! The paint is metallic.
draw dickbutt
How is this autonomous, the driver was clearly steering it...
It is autonomous in the sense that it can run autonomously and without human intervention. However; don't you think it'd still make sense to have controls for human intervention... for when I don't know, like when the system goes down? My guess is that the driver in there is either the head of the company or some local big shot seeing how it everything works in the driver's seat under both operating conditions - as seeing it is a launching ceremony. I kinda imagined this would have been obvious.
本来很科技感的车车，居然拍出来这么平常
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ching chang cho too mate but I honestly didn't understood what u wrote. "english motherlover, do you speak it?! "
ART (Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit) is a great idea that has a real future, especially for China. I suspect the West will be more into individual vehicle transit.
Western public transportation is a fuckin mess
This is great, but is it "hackable" by drawing new lines with chalk ?
Probably a specialized paint, but that was my first thought.
FFS, doesn't anybody read?! "While it’s guided by the white lines on the pavement, the sensors along its route (combined with sensors on the vehicle itself) help it follow the ‘virtual rails’ and adapt to its surroundings and unexpected situations in real time."
yeah, but what about @$$hats who use road colored paint? It might block those elements as well...
NO! The paint is metallic.
draw dickbutt
How is this autonomous, the driver was clearly steering it...
It is autonomous in the sense that it can run autonomously and without human intervention. However; don't you think it'd still make sense to have controls for human intervention... for when I don't know, like when the system goes down? My guess is that the driver in there is either the head of the company or some local big shot seeing how it everything works in the driver's seat under both operating conditions - as seeing it is a launching ceremony. I kinda imagined this would have been obvious.
本来很科技感的车车，居然拍出来这么平常
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
ching chang cho too mate but I honestly didn't understood what u wrote. "english motherlover, do you speak it?! "
ART (Autonomous Rail Rapid Transit) is a great idea that has a real future, especially for China. I suspect the West will be more into individual vehicle transit.
Western public transportation is a fuckin mess