by STrRedWolf
The tl/dr: There will always be human oversight in railroading operations until AI's become self-aware and human themselves, and even then...
Now that we got the impatient riff-raff out of the room, we can get to the real meat of my argument.
Lets start with the current state of AI in transportation, which is in car technology. Right now, it's still problematic:
The tech's not there yet. And I think it won't be for many decades. However, sensor tech can be refined over those decades and a train engine has plenty of room. If it can detect an obstruction over a mile away, that gives it time to slow down enough that emergency braking WOULD "stop it on a dime." It would not take away an engineer's job, but it will definitely automate a lot of jobs an engineer would need to do and provide a bit more oversight.
Would we have AI's running the rails? Well, only if they were to the same level as science fiction depicts them, and they were able to sit down at the controls to tell the limited "SI" what to do.
Now that we got the impatient riff-raff out of the room, we can get to the real meat of my argument.
Lets start with the current state of AI in transportation, which is in car technology. Right now, it's still problematic:
- It's not real AI, but more like synthetic intelligence of limited capacity. Not there yet! AI is AI when it becomes self-aware.
- And yes, very limited capacity. Half the systems don't even have the right equipment to do the job at all!
- Tesla's getting sued because of two "AutoPilot" related decapitations and many other issues. They can't detect tractor trailers, road work zones, people...
- Uber Autopilot's getting stuck by having a safety cone on the car hood... and don't forget about the times where they crossed into an active fire fighting area.
The tech's not there yet. And I think it won't be for many decades. However, sensor tech can be refined over those decades and a train engine has plenty of room. If it can detect an obstruction over a mile away, that gives it time to slow down enough that emergency braking WOULD "stop it on a dime." It would not take away an engineer's job, but it will definitely automate a lot of jobs an engineer would need to do and provide a bit more oversight.
Would we have AI's running the rails? Well, only if they were to the same level as science fiction depicts them, and they were able to sit down at the controls to tell the limited "SI" what to do.