Driverless Buses Taking You From Terminal To Your Plane

[Jahulaye]

And vice versa. Does this new and exciting technology fill you with excitement or fear that this isn’t going to end well?

Personally I welcome AI and autonomous vehicles and all you technology and I think that those who don’t are going to be left behind, metaphorically and literally.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-5526749/Passengers-taken-planes-Gatwick-driverless-BUSES.html

[Baldric]

I am not a Great Fan of Buses now, even with entitlement to a Bus Pass (Shredded, I've tried to cancel, they ignore it)
I don't see any change of attitude in the future tbh.

[New Judge]

Gatwick does not need buses to take passengers to their aircraft.

When I last looked it had over 140 stands spread over six piers (with more in the pipeline). I have traveled regularly from there for over 30 years and can remember only once boarding an aircraft which was not at a pier. That was because we had to use a replacement aircraft which was not on a stand and there was no time to get it there.

[Mamyalynne]

I can see a use for them on large sites shuttling staff,materials,baggage etc around.

[Hopkirk]

Having driven buses airside at an airport, I can see this as being possible. Low speeds, very controlled environment, disciplined drivers of other vehicles.

However I still do not believe we will ever see completely autonomous vehicles on the road.

[Old_Geezer]

When the bugs have been sorted I'm sure they'd be ok in that scenario. Not to be extended to be used on the roads though. Not all of the public know how to behave and an authority figure is needed. They've already got rid of the conductors.

[youngmafbog]

"and all you technology "
What does that mean ?

Technology is fine so long as it is not rushed. rush it and you will get failures. Those of us who know the pitfalls are cautious but it certainly does not mean we dont embrace it. Indeed, from what I have seen it is those in technology (programming) who are the most cautious and you cant embrace it more than programming it can you?

A driverless bus on an airport I would think was reasonable. Where they may come a cropper is on the insurance. If one hits a plane the damage is likely to be quite large.

[Jahulaye]

“"and all you technology "
What does that mean ? ”

That was meant to be NEW technology.


It might be a good idea to put some kind of underground electromagnetic technology near the runway that activates a kill switch in driverless vehicles in case they malfunction and make a run for the runway.

Either that or those electric poles that can be activated to rise from underground to halt cars

[youngmafbog]

Protecting the runway will be relatively easy. I was thinking more of the parked planes (and fuel tankers) the vehicles will have to get close to.

I still think it is a workable thing but whether it is really commercially viable remains to be seen

[Jahulaye]

Driverless is the way forward, there are trains, cars are being tested and one day there’s no doubt in my mind that ships and aircraft will be completely autonomous and computer controlled.

[Jahulaye]

Fully and not copilot and whatever the ships version of copilot is called but technology will have to have moved waaay forward to be able to deal with rogue, unpredictable weather/ other issues both on the seas and the skies.

[Hopkirk]

The technology is well proven for sensing the position of objects and avoiding collisions.
Easy to apply it to this environment. Slightly harder would be to stop the buses driving behind aircraft that are about to be pushed back, as that requires assessment of flashing lights.

[ToraToraTora]

I think this has an outside chance of working, I just hope they don't try it on the public highway, people could die.

[Gromit]

// if it's successful it could lead to driverless baggage trucks and transport buses for passengers //

Bloody hell - they’ll be having aeroplanes that fly themselves next, on so kind od autopilot.

[Gromit]

on some kind od autopilot.

[Tilly2]

of, Gromit. Use mine. Copy and paste it. :-)

[jno]

Autonomous flying taxis are currently bein trialled, according to a recent FT story.

[emmie]

i am not sure about this at all, having seen a trial run in driverless buses in Greenwich, more needs to be done to make it totally safe.

[Hopkirk]

They will have to make a huge investment in order to save the cost of employing a driver.

[andy-hughes]

Hopkirk - // They will have to make a huge investment in order to save the cost of employing a driver. //

Your personal experience gives valuable insight into the concept, and a pithy summary here as well!

This reminds me of HS2 - a group of people have an idea, and someone gives them some money, and they are off, enthusiasm seriously outweighing logical thought.

As with HS2, we should be asking ourselves - what do we actually want, can we actually achieve what we want, and is the end result going to be worth the vast amount of time, trouble and money spent to get it?

And will future generations see the ultimate futility of this 'vision', and simply revert to what was there before?

We should be wary of being carried away by enthusiasm from the eager few taking us down dead-end roads of expense and misery.

[Hopkirk]

Well that's quite a jump Andy, and I'm not sure I agree.

The railways are seriously in need of additional capacity, and this is one way of doing it. There were plenty of people not happy at the Victorian engineers building railways in the first place. We are better off because they did.