51–60 of 77 posts
Lets not kid ourselves. The only real "advantage" would have been one less driver earning a paycheck.
I've been on the airside passenger busses at Schipol. They move faster than the average bus. I cannot see this tiny thing ever competing with those pro drivers.
Self driving is a bit of a stretch here. There are already a lot locations around the world where autonomous vehicles are driving, even in the Nederlands. For example in the Netherlands there is a container terminal that has been using autonomous trucks for decades. And since 1999 there have been autonomous busses in Rotterdam. Yes they are self driving, but not as smart as self driving means today.
What makes that possible? Closed course, has to stay on tracks?
>> to investigate what the advantages of autonomous transport can be and what employees think of it. Lets not kid ourselves. The only real "advantage" would have been one less driver earning a paycheck. I've been on the airside passenger busses at Schipol. They move faster than the average bus. I cannot see this tiny thing ever competing with those pro drivers.
Immunity to strikes, illness, and all those pesky complexities with meat and flesh
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I grew up near Dulles. Everybody seems to hate on the mobile lounges, but I've never not beaten my luggage to the baggage claim, and I haven't found it any quicker to get from my gate to the exit at other similarly large airports. In any event they are being retired in favor of below-ground trains.
Partly, that's because the luggage processing is very slow on international flights at Dulles. You have to go through immigration, which can be time consuming (though the automated ones are better of late). There's no reason you should get to baggage claim ahead of the baggage. Aside from that, though... I think it's just that it feels like an additional step. You want to get going -- especially if you're the sort of…
Yeah they're definitely just buses that can open on each end at this point. They aspired to be lounges and they kind of convey (ha) what could have been. An actual automated mobile lounge isn't that crazy, right? Automation+batter power does make it more appealing.
I was at Dulles/DC and the air-side transportation was interesting: the jetbridge was also a bus. It's a "mobile lounge" and I guess a few airports have them. There's definitely something interesting when transit isn't seen as transit...but just mobile public spaces? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_lounge
These things have a high 'what might have been' future factor, but man they are annoying in practice. Because you have to wait for everyone to cram inside, it feels much slower than a train or moving walkway. They're very frustrating after a long flight when you just want to get to customs and get home.
I was flying to Schiphol on Monday and use that airport as my favorite for long-haul flights, even though I'm from Germany. It's a really nice airport.
Any chance we can get the title modified to read "Schiphol airport ..." as many won't know if this is a company, a town, or what until paragraph 4 of the press release?
> many won't know if this is a company, a town, or what until paragraph 4 of the press release? The word "airside" in the title already gives a pretty enormous clue !
I was flying to Schiphol on Monday and use that airport as my favorite for long-haul flights, even though I'm from Germany. It's a really nice airport.
It's one of my least favorite airports in Europe. The number of times my luggage got lost there alone is enough for me to avoid whenever possible. The shops and restaurants are also extremely bland.
Worse than Frankfurt? It seems like the only food you can get there is a hot-dog...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Partly, that's because the luggage processing is very slow on international flights at Dulles. You have to go through immigration, which can be time consuming (though the automated ones are better of late). There's no reason you should get to baggage claim ahead of the baggage. Aside from that, though... I think it's just that it feels like an additional step. You want to get going -- especially if you're the sort of…
> Partly, that's because the luggage processing is very slow on international flights at Dulles. You have to go through immigration, which can be time consuming (though the automated ones are better of late). There's no reason you should get to baggage claim ahead of the baggage. Somewhat OT, but I just realized I've never flown internationally from Dulles. I've flown internationally a fair amount, and I've flown fro…
>> to investigate what the advantages of autonomous transport can be and what employees think of it. Lets not kid ourselves. The only real "advantage" would have been one less driver earning a paycheck. I've been on the airside passenger busses at Schipol. They move faster than the average bus. I cannot see this tiny thing ever competing with those pro drivers.
Given that all modern, developed countries have to fight with a population decrease, this is actually a good thing. We have to prepare for a future where there will be barely anyone left to do relatively low-skill jobs, and the earlier we begin to automate them, the better - otherwise, we'll be in quite the bind in a decade or two, once the last boomers that work high into their 80s just to survive are finally dead.