There is an old joke about a pilot-less plane where the take-off announcement assures passengers that being without a pilot is not a problem as ‘the safety procedures are fully automated, the safety procedures are fully automated, the safety procedures are fully automated . . .’

This old joke gives logic to the news that China has taken an unusual step in preparation for the opening of its first ‘driverless’ automated mass transit rail line – by hiring drivers.

More than 70 trainee drivers – all male, under-25, with good reflexes and conversational English – have begun training to work on the 28km link between Beijing airport and Dong-zhimen station, close to the city centre.

Jia Peng, from Beijing Mass Transit Railway Operation, which will run the link said, ‘Recruitment of drivers for the airport line has already been completed.’

The decision to hire drivers seems a very sensible one. How many passengers would feel secure hurtling along in a train which has no driver?

Suggestions, such as that which appeared in the Financial Times that this decison ’suggests that some in Beijing’s vast bureaucracy may be having difficulty keeping up with the breakneck pace of construction of new infrastructure’ are daft.

For Bombardier, the $44m contract for 40 advanced ART MK II carriages to run on the airport line marks an opportunity to showcase its driverless technology in China, a hugely important market.

The rail’s highest speed will be 110 km per hour, making the journey from Dongzhimen to the airport to about 16 minutes.

Zhang Jianwei, Bombardier’s chief country representative, insisted its trains would be up to the task of travelling between the line’s four stations without human assistance. He said, ‘A driverless train does not need a driver.’ The illustration is of a version of the train in Vancouver. It does not have a driver and Bombardier insist it does not need one.

Very possibly true. But a driverless train might also neither need nor get passengers. This writer would not ride on one for a gold clock. The idea of trusting modern technology to take you at high speed from A to B without human supervision chills the soul.
Source: Financial Times