Good day my good friend.

As I write this, I am on a packed commuter train leaving London during the evening peak hour. And I mean really packed – 12 cars of passengers full to standing. The last time I saw it this busy must have been January 2020 before you know what happened. Maybe the new normal is the same as the old one. Or more accurately, the view of the future is always complicated.

If you have any suggestions for interesting news items or bits of research to include in this newsletter, you can email me.

James

The new driving test for autonomous vehicles

If the future is going to be autonomous vehicles (big ‘if’ I know, but humour me here), one of the aspects that will need to change is the driving test. That was one of the findings of the Law Commission’s work on automated driving, and its kind of logical really. As much as we are training the vehicles in road rules, we need to be trained in how to operate them when things go sideways. But, how do you do that? I think that reading a manual won’t cut it, somehow. Luckily, researchers are starting to tackle this question.

This research paper looked at the case of training drivers for Adaptive Cruise Control. Or about Level 3 Automation. The research specifically looked at two ways of training people (summarised as basic and comprehensive) and the difference between younger and older drivers. In short, the older generations don’t trust Adaptive Cruise Control, until they received comprehensive training. Then they trusted it as much as the young ‘uns. Results on whether the training resulted in fewer collisions were not forthcoming, sadly.

Stupid, sexy ITS!

This research article is about the social value of ITS systems in the region of Flanders in Belgium. I am sorry to those of you who live in that part of the world – it is beautiful. But you can bet your life-diddly-ife I am going to be cracking some Flanders jokes. So strap in, frienderinoo, because its about to get Neddy.

Transport professionals know diddly squat about the social impacts of the old Intelligent Transport Systems. Instead, focussing on making the old buckaroo, or just on the traffic impacts, god bless ‘em. Some have tried to understand the impact on the Lord’s creation. And gosh-diddly they are making that useful. But does ITS have a positive social impact? Sadly, that seems to be a Neddy-no-no.

Random things

These links are meant to make you think about the things that affect our world in transport, and not just think about transport itself. I hope that you enjoy them.

• The Gas Stove Panic (Naked Capitalism)

• German Deindustrialization Is Still Looming (Project Syndicate)

• JP Morgan reaches agreement with Ukraine’s Zelensky on rebuilding infrastructure (New York Post)

• Noam Chomsky on ChatGPT: It’s “Basically High-Tech Plagiarism” and “a Way of Avoiding Learning” (Open Culture)

• I tried using AI. It scared me (Tom Scott)

Something interesting

Do you want to spend some time riding on the top deck of a bus through the London suburbs? And if you answer is no, why? What is wrong with you? 🙂

If you do nothing else today, then do this

My good friend Jenny Milne has written an excellent opinion piece in The Scotsman on the value of rural Demand Responsive Transport services. Please read it! What she says is equally as applicable in most rural areas as it is in the Highlands of Scotland.