Tesla uberbulls often like to say that Tesla is the leader in self-driving because while it doesn’t have a commercially available autonomous ride-hailing service like Waymo, it doesn’t rely on geo-fencing and mapping like Waymo.
They argue that if Tesla wanted to do that it could, but it prefers to focus on an autonomous system that could drive anywhere, anytime, without mapping.
However, it is questionable that they could do it if they wanted to because they still haven’t done it on a project much simpler than Waymo’s operations in Pheonix and other cities: the tunnels under Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas Convention Center Loop is The Boring Company’s first full-scale loop project currently in commercial use.
Elon Musk’s tunneling start-up completed the $50 million project in just over a year.
A Boring Company Loop system consists of tunnels in which Tesla electric vehicles travel at high speeds between stations to transport people within a city. The Boring Company said that it was working with Tesla to use its self-driving system inside those tunnels, which would enables to get rid of the current drivers and lower the cost of operation.
However, 2 years and several more tunnels connected to the Loop later, The Boring Company is still using drivers in the tunnels.
Of course. Using passenger cars makes no sense. But the advantage of using smaller vehicles is that you can offer point to point connections, i.e. you don't need to stop at every station.
Would have to wait for the car infront stopping though. Or not have stations on the actual line, which they haven't done?
In the Vegas loop there is a separate area for getting in and out of the vehicle, before it enters the tunnel. Therefore the only limit is the capacity of the tunnel. That's how it would have to work for other such systems too.
So... Roads and taxis but underground...
Your solution makes zero sense
Have you been to a city? The whole point is to move traffic underground. And having tunnels where traffic flows in just one direction and where people can get in and off in dedicated locations will make this far more efficient than regular traffic. But yeah, let's just never change anything and never try anything new. Our world is perfect as it is, right?
Yeah, we do that with metros, not individual cars that just create underground traffic. Having individual cars dropping people off at the specific location they want to go just stops all incoming cars from moving forward.
https://youtu.be/p8NiM_p8n5A
Hell, I would know about it, I used to be the one welcoming people at the drop off point for a casino, we had a four lanes roundabout and two people taking their sweet time could prevent twenty cars from moving. Metros are on a timer, that solves the issue completely.