Japan's bullet trains gearing up for automatic driving

Central Japan Railway Co and East Japan Railway Co aim to commercialize driverless systems around 2028 for the Tokaido Shinkansen and the mid-2030s for the Joetsu Shinkansen, respectively.

Weird that self-driving cars are already being deployed in American cities like San Francisco despite all the different parameters on the open road and this is the timeline for bullet train automation on the rails. I reckon it could have been done years ago.

It is a losing battle since the privatization of Japan Rail in the 80s but you have to give it to the Japanese bureaucracy/inertia in preserving a lot of well-paying, salaried make work jobs in the face of capitalist pressures.

The main challenges for the ATO being developed by JR Central are sticking to standard departure, transit, and arrival times set in 15-second increments at each station and improving passenger comfort and energy-saving operation by adjusting for the number of acceleration/deceleration cycles and speed fluctuations.

I do not think anyone believes automated systems could not have performed this better years ago.

Automated systems on the road are already much safer than human drivers it is just that they are not perfect yet given the variables.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_driver-less_train_systems

Japanese respect for tradition and bureaucratic inertia has preserved a lot of make work jobs from the smartly gesturing train conductor to the baton waving ojiisan at intersections.

For a segment of the working public it has been a negative but it has preserved jobs for another sector.

In Singapore, most of the MRTs are completely driverless.

As usual, Japan is behind the times.

It's the future. Japanese population is decreasing and AI will take more jobs than expected.

You guys still have time to learn some trade!

No need to always compare Japan with what has been developed in other countries

Japan has had self-drive trains for decades.

Unemployment here we come!

Japan has had self-drive trains for decades.

The monorail or whatever thing that goes to Port Island in Kobe was already driverless when I came to Japan in 1990.

One of the big features of the Shinkansen is that it is completely separate track to other trains and has no level crossings etc. This definitely provides scope for self-driving, making it more like a super high-speed closed system, like a monorail, than a regular train on regular track that has dangers like points, signals, level crossings etc.

I rather would like to have a human being on the loud peddle and brake.

The photo gives more than an impression of a locomotive that urgently needs to get to its next destination yesterday.

I would feel safer if Thomas the Tank Engine has a pulse

Comparing MRTs and the shinkansen is not a good one. They're two very different animals.

The driverless MRTs, and the Yurikamome in particular, are relatively much slower and have way fewer passenger.

The shink is a high speed bullet train reaching over 300km/hr with hundreds aboard each one. The consequences of a mishap on one of these compared to an MRT is exponentially much higher.

The Victorian Line in London was designed to be driverless but there is always a driver who does nothing. Same will happen with Shinkansen.

In Singapore, most of the MRTs are completely driverless.

Big difference in size, speed and distance compared to Japan, and no earthquakes.

dagonToday  05:01 pm JST

Weird that self-driving cars are already being deployed in American cities like San Francisco despite all the different parameters on the open road…

And those cars are causing havoc and creating traffic jams in San Francisco because they’re dumber than people. People are pretty dumb, so that’s an accomplishment.

For example, if a rider in a driverless car doesn’t close the door completely when exiting, the car sits there in the middle of the street and won’t move. It doesn’t “know” what to do, so it sits as cars back up behind it all the way to Chicago. And it doesn’t respond to people yelling at it to get the hell out of the way.

So, since cost-cutting is targeted, are the fares going to come down? Uh oh.

Automated safety systems to assist the human driver are a great thing. But, I would not be comfortable travelling at shinkensen speeds with only a computer at the helm.

To all of you people saying how great it will be, have you ever used an electronic device? How many times has it froze, glitched, required rebooting, etc? Would you want that to happen at 250kph, with nobody to take control?

These days airliners fly mostly on auto pilot.

What? Driverless High Speed Bullet Trains in Japan!

Is Japan so short of human drivers for her high speed trains?

Does Japan want to have the world's First high speed train with every seat packed with passengers fly into the blue Heavens?

wallace, garypen, I don't doubt for a moment that automation in travel is upon us all.

Trains, planes, ocean liners, ferries, automobiles, coaches, you name it.

Maybe I am a closeted Luddite even though I fully support next generation development in financial products, and blockchain encryption technology.

But they don't provide the confidence to stake my life on whether a glitch will drive me off a cliff, or fly me into mount fuji.

Oh, I know take a happy pill.

Humans are not important anymore.

Who on earth came up with the moniker Bullet Train.

A metal projectile for firing from a rifle, revolver, or other small firearm, typically cylindrical and pointed, and sometimes containing an explosive.

That doesn't inspire convenience, when one is on a future automated train travelling to Kobe.

@Zoroto. Comparing the Singaporean MRT to the Shinkansen is like comparing a Chick to an Eagle. The Yurikakome line is driverless. That's more of a comparison! In any case the Shinkansen has been 'almost' driverless for a long time.

@wallace: Airliners have been flying 'mostly' in autopilot since the advent of fbw. Late 1980s- But thanks as usual for the tip top info!

Don't misunderstand, it is nest generation design and beauty personified on rails, almost ready to pounce.

itsonkyrocknroll: The moniker comes from the original 0 series trains from 1964, which did indeed resemble a bullet at the front. I believe coined by an American Journalist covering the Olympics

Thank you theResident, I do see the resemblance and design craftwork aerodynamics in such a moniker.

I just would like a human beings finger on the trigger.

what could possibly go wrong?

All around the world, countries take advantage of the benefits of bullet trains, except in the USA. Over here, Big Oil, and the politicians they control, effectively make this competitor to petroleum consuming personal vehicles impossible to build.

Makes not such a big difference, because at those extreme high speeds there’s neither a significant response time for human drivers nor for an automated or AI controlled system to react in a rational way and according to the situation. The train will just by physical laws continue moving for quite some seconds and meters, if there’s suddenly a near obstacle, deformed rails, an earthquake warning or whatever else.

wallace

These days airliners fly mostly on auto pilot.

There are also two pilots in the cockpit. Autopilot doesn't take-off or land the aircraft. Nor does it follow instructions from Air Traffic Control, Nor does it fly the aircraft during emergencies, such as engine trouble or vital system failures, or during severe weather. That's what those two human pilots do.

itsonlyrocknroll

Oh, I know take a happy pill.

Unfortunately, happy pills are hard to come by here.

no pilot and systems fails going to end up like the titan titanic. System failure can happen I sure will never hop on one. The yurikamome line is pretty safe and no pilot but a bullet train going extremely fast sounds dangerous

I always feel pressure to get on and off any type of train in Japan as there seems to be an emphasis on timekeeping as opposed to the needs of the traveler-computerized systems will make this even more so…

In Singapore, most of the MRTs are completely driverless.

MRT isn't moving at half the speeds the Shinkasen is.

The photo gives more than an impression of a locomotive that urgently needs to get to its next destination yesterday.

And yet the headlights look like the eyes of some poor creature that is bored out of its mind

All around the world, countries take advantage of the benefits of bullet trains, except in the USA. Over here, Big Oil, and the politicians they control, effectively make this competitor to petroleum consuming personal vehicles impossible to build

That's not the reason. In the US nearly all trains use diesel powered locomotives so "Big Oil" is selling plenty of fossils to the railroads to power those trains.

The hold up for passenger rail in the US is that all the trackage with very few exceptions along the northeast corridor are owned by freight railroads. They place a priority on the schedules of their freight trains. Passenger trains have to operate around their freight schedules. Sometimes that means the passenger train has to pull off on a siding to let the freight train pass. Or, the passenger train has to remain at a station while some achingly slow freight train takes half an hour to pass. On some routes like Tehachapi Pass the Union (Useless) Pacific simply refuses to allow passenger trains. The State of California has been trying literally for decades to run trains directly from the LA Basin to the Bay Area over Tehachapi Pass, even threatened to take the route by eminent domain but because those routes were subsidized by a Federal Railroad Subsidy (20 square miles of free land for every mile of transcontinental rail line laid) the states cannot claim the land.

In addition, the freight lines often do not maintain their tracks to a standard that would permit faster passenger trains to use their full speed. There some parts of lines I have been on on both coasts where the train had to slow down to 15-20 mph to negotiate bumpy curvy track owned by a freight railroad. Good enough for their freight trains so they have no intention of improving their track.

As a result Amtrak and local lines like the Coaster, Metrolink and Calrail can't offer premium passenger service as they wish they could.

Autopilot doesn't take-off or land the aircraft.

Tell us you know nothing about modern aircraft without telling us you know nothing about modern aircraft.

Future Shinkansens will be driverless and run by AI.

Bullet trains do not travel on regular freight train tracks. The freight trains would get in the way, and the bullet train tracks, although the same size as freight tracks, have more gentle curves, to accommodate high speed traffic. The USA is one of the very few modern countries without a high speed rail system. The opposition of politicians controlled by Big Oil, and the funding of anti-bullet train advertising by Big Oil, are the major reasons.

Even relatively small countries like South Korea, Taiwan, Morocco, Latvia, Portugal, Sweden, Holland, Laos, and Turkey have seen the advantages to using high speed electric rail. None of those countries has to deal with a domestic oil industry that is opposed to a more modern transportation system that would cut into their profits.

Bullet trains do not travel on regular freight train tracks. The freight trains would get in the way, and the bullet train tracks, although the same size as freight tracks, have more gentle curves, to accommodate high speed traffic. The USA is one of the very few modern countries without a high speed rail system. The opposition of politicians controlled by Big Oil, and the funding of anti-bullet train advertising by Big Oil, are the major reasons.

The opposition to the bullet train being built in California is coming from landowners along the route and owners of land being bought for the route, and by cities that do not want an elevated train cutting though town. You keep beating this Big Oil drum but oil companies do not figure in the dispute in any way. After having neighborhoods cut in half by freeways local landowner groups are fighting to prevent a repeat with high speed rail lines cutting up neighborhoods. There is also neighborhood opposition to the stations. Nothing to do with big oil. This opposition is grass roots.

Autopilot doesn't take-off or land the aircraft.

Tell us you know nothing about modern aircraft without telling us you know nothing about modern aircraft.

In theory in some installations it may be able to land an aircraft but this commercial and instrument rated pilot would not trust a system to fly the aircraft to the deck. I have had "George", our name for the autopilot, try to kill me enough times to learn not to trust it and to keep my hands close to the controls when using it. That is real life flying experience talking. I do not think there is a commercial pilot alive willing to leave the cockpit and let George fly the airplane. And during approach and landing it is used as workload reduction tool, but nobody trusts it completely.