On Wed, 21 Mar 2018 08:34:21 -0400, Wolf K wrote:

On 2018-03-21 05:41, J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:
In message , Char Jackson
writes:
[]
Uber Trucking has a good initial approach. A human drops off a semi
trailer at a hub near the edge of a city, then an Uber truck is hooked
up. The Uber truck takes the trailer to the next city or across the
country, where it's once again dropped off at a trucking hub and a human
takes it into the city. Out on the highway, there's still a human in the
truck, but he or she is there just in case, not as a primary driver.

Isn't that just a variation on rail freight? OK, it's more flexible in
terms of being able to set up new "railheads", and there isn't as much
time spent building up trains (though if it takes off I can see "road
trains" as in Australia being pushed), but the principle isn't that
different as I see it.

Rail is much safer.

I agree.

IMO the push for autonomous cars is a sign of of a
last desperate bid to maintain the private car, which is the most
inefficient transport we've ever devised.

There are two points in there. I can't agree with either of them.