Yes, but with one adult supervisor.
Would you send your kids to school on a self driving schoolbus?
21–30 of 59 posts
Re: Would you send your kids to school on a self driving schoolbus?
#22I remember walking to school myself when I was six, and taking a regular city bus every day since age seven. It was fine, never had a problem really. A self-driving bus from door to door would have been fun... But on the other hand, getting familiar with the city environment by walking was useful at that age too. (This was in Finland. I know Americans don't really let their kids outside on their own anymore.)
I live in America and went to school in rural New York. We walked to school in elementary (primary?) even when it snowed. The only kids who got to ride a bus were unable to walk (broken legs etc). 30 years ago, but friends in my home town say kids still walk!
Re: Would you send your kids to school on a self driving schoolbus?
#23bus drivers do more than just drive the bus. -For example, keep some modicum of discipline. -Help in the event of emergency (health or otherwise) -Guardian (against kidnapping, etc.) That is to say, adult supervision may still be necessary.
Sure, but if they don't have to drive on top of all that, it sounds like a boon.
Re: Would you send your kids to school on a self driving schoolbus?
#24So many obstacles to this working! Vandalism, no adult supervision, even the extremely goofy design point that it can go forward or backward - both ends can be the front end - so others in traffic can be completely fooled about where its going next. Let's put our kids in a problematic tin can and make it move erratically! Not a genius idea.
Sounds like another opportunity: automated adult supervision.
Re: Would you send your kids to school on a self driving schoolbus?
#25This is a side note:
It's really interesting to me that whenever anyone talks about homeschooling children the point that is always raised by someone is that if children never leave the home then how will they learn to socialize with children their own age.
Similarly, whenever people talk about skipping grades for exceptionally bright children someone always brings up socialization.
Yet here we see many people talk about how leaving children unsupervised in a self driven bus is a recipe for disaster. Which seems to suggest that children socializing with their own age is a detriment to both society and the children themselves.
I'm sure nobody is using data to come up with these conclusions, but I find it interesting that the expectation is that kids socializing with kids is both the most important thing AND the worst possible thing.
Re: Would you send your kids to school on a self driving schoolbus?
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
No steward in the plan? The plan is, cheaper than busses. Hiring an adult for every 5 kids (only 6 seats) is prohibitively more expensive than 1 for 60 in a regular bus. And volunteers don't work either - if they drove to school to ride along with the kids, why didn't they just drive them home themselves?
> And volunteers don't work either - if they drove to school to ride along with the kids, why didn't they just drive them home themselves? Insurance and liability come to mind.
We all have insurance on our cars. Elementary school soccer parents are already driving the team around. Nothing new here.
But I agree, its still a bad idea because of the inefficiency.
Re: Would you send your kids to school on a self driving schoolbus?
#27If there is no driver to pay it probably doesn't make sense to put 20 or 30 kids on one bus.
Around here (a larger rural county) there are kids that ride the bus for really long periods of time, like more than an hour each way. Much of that time is picking up other kids. I mean, I fully expect penny pinching to win the day, but it would be evil not to take the lower operating costs of a self driving vehicle and give it to those kids as time.
Re: Would you send your kids to school on a self driving schoolbus?
#28Sure.
1. Put a bus monitor in an official looking uniform on the bus instead of a bus driver.
2. Have the bus route programmed into the bus.
3. Have each student badge/scan in to the bus, and determine which stops to make based on that.
4. Announce which student the stop is for, and have them badge/scan out.
5. Have a (opt-in) system that can alert parents if the student fails to scan in to the bus on the prescribed route.
This system could also be used for management of permission slips for students going home with friends, and help homeroom teachers determine which students came to school, but decided to skip class.
Re: Would you send your kids to school on a self driving schoolbus?
#29The only problem I can see with this is when you have a neighborhood of kids that all go to the same school (which I think is pretty typical in most US areas), six people just isn't going to be enough. I realize six is a tradeoff, but at my bus-stop in high school, we had 12-15 kids that all caught the bus.
Re: Would you send your kids to school on a self driving schoolbus?
#30So many obstacles to this working! Vandalism, no adult supervision, even the extremely goofy design point that it can go forward or backward - both ends can be the front end - so others in traffic can be completely fooled about where its going next. Let's put our kids in a problematic tin can and make it move erratically! Not a genius idea.
You say that like those are impossible obstacles. It's been a while since I rode a school bus, but the driver wasn't exactly adult supervision, and there was plenty of vandalism already. If anything, a self-driving school bus would be a positive as it would then allow the former driver to actually focus on the kids. Not sure I agree with the idea that others could be fooled by where it's going in traffic, given that…
Bawawahahaha.
1) bullying
2) assault - especially sexual assault
3) harassment
It is always highly amusing when Silly Valley engineers pontificate on life outside their engineering bubble. The idea of the self driving adult free school bus is brought to you by the same people who brought you Juicero and Bodega.