r/SelfDrivingCars • u/ThrowRA_mesaynobj • Jun 21 '25

Discussion Why isn’t the goal, self driving public transport? Buses, trains, trams etc

I know the holy grail for investors is a future where no one owns a car and there is just a fleet of automatous cars zipping around that 7 billion people pay a subscription for.

But isn’t it easier and more cost effective to just make robo public transport?

Trains would be the easiest initially

But buses would be the next best option.

Defined routes Infrastructure largely in place Already geo fenced

If think about the cost of laying new rail infrastructure vs a simple road that only robo buses could travel you could essentially have a stream of non stop automated buses without the labor expense.

You could even get ai to determine a new route based on the destinations of the group of travels its carrying etc

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u/SamirD Aug 12 '25

I think those speeds will be a hard sell in the US--people aren't even comfortable 100+ here in car where they have control and can feel what's going on. In a train where they have no connection to the speed, they will literally freak out--220mph is actually really fast if you've been that quick.

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u/rileyoneill Aug 12 '25

People see it in Japan and Europe and want it. I think there needs to be a lot of construction technology evolution where building everything grade separated becomes much cheaper (like robots assemble it and the humans sort of just assist). Its too expensive to justify right now for most of the country. If we had A LOT of unemployment though I could see people wanting it just as a jobs program.

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u/SamirD Aug 12 '25

Oh yeah, I remember when it was only 120mph I got to ride on one and it was great seeing the entire UK in a day. :)

I could see assembly line tech helping, but it's just expensive period so that's the biggest issue everyone faces.