• Dabundis@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    In order for everyone to just freaking go, their cars would have to be attached somehow.

    I wonder if anyone’s ever thought of linking a bunch of cars together so they can all stop and go simultaneously. And hey, since the cars are attached and all need to go to the same place, we can build a track instead of using high maintenance rubber on pavement and-

    oop, we invented trains

    • frank@sopuli.xyz
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      2 months ago

      I love re-deriving the train when people talk about autonomous cars/trucking and how they can already do the highway part easily

      • kameecoding@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        What I dont fucking get is that even in Europe where even in shitty countries like Hungary and Slovakia we have train tracks that’s about thousandfold what the US has, and we still put shit on Semis and have them drive between cities, cities that are all fucking connected by train.

        Why aren’t we fucking putting everything on goddamn fucking trains, and then do only the last miles of the delivery on trucks, they could even be electric as that would eliminate all the drawbacks of electric semis, having them only go short distances

        • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 months ago

          AFAIK a big reason for this is because we’re utterly anal about making everyone pay for railways, while roads are obviously necessary for civilization to exist and thus they’re perfectly free to use!

          it’s the same corrupt double standard that applies to public transport, it’s just a systemic “oppression” of efficient systems in favour of inefficient ones that let money be funneled into the pockets of asphalt manufacturers and car companies and whatnot.

    • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      And instead of each one having a small engine, we could combine it all into a big one more efficient than separate ones would be!

    • dan1101@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Some sort of linked car-train lane that your car could use self-driving software to enter and leave would be an interesting concept. Like HOV but everyone is linked at the same speed.

      • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        This is trains but worse. The HOV lane also does not do much for traffic. It’s slightly less miserable to sit through a traffic jam at times, but often is similar speed wise to a regular lane.

        Source: myself, driving in and around LA

    • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      And hey, since the cars are attached and all need to go to the same place

      And voila, you just invented road networks again

      • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
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        2 months ago

        the vast majority of people live in cities, where public transport demonstrably works just fine and is in fact necessary for them to not devolve into gridlock.