Gavin Devine from Newgate Communications says that autonomous vehicles could rival rail in providing a comfortable and safe travelling environment and backers of the digital railway need to factor this into their thinking. “Rail won’t have a future at all if we don’t start thinking big now,” says Devine. He argues that the digital railway debate ought to focus on what the railway will look like in 50 years not in 10 years. His belief is that autonomous vehicles would be marketed in much the same way that the railway is, so “why would you ever need trains at all”? Devine does not at any point consider how likely this is in reality, given that the technology is not yet there for autonomous vehicles to function in the way he describes.
We've read it in: Transport Times, Jan/Feb 2017
