@yogthos but there are fancy new innovations! E.g. just the other day I saw a video on the youtube account of our federal railway system detailing how they now use 70% less …plant poison to keep the tracks intact by using cameras and 'AI' that detects plant growth on a special train.

Also hyperloop isn't an innovation, it's a scam.

But autonomous autos need bleeding-edge hi-tech just to not kill both passengers and passers-by on an uneventful trip from A to B. That's exciting!

Trains just avoid that whole issue by building sensible infrastructure. That's predictable. What you are describing is incremental improvements on that.

@clacke autonomous cars would just need careful drivers and we'd all be good. But then what's the point of an autonomous vehicle? Besides that, you're right I think.

Anyway, most trains aren't autonomous yet either, but e.g. the viennese U-Bahn can autonomously reverse itself in a station, so the driver can just exit at the front and enter at the new front without having to walk the whole length of the train. A lot of safety features are automated too, but I don't want to go into details.

@clacke also, cars make trains a lot more interesting because of the fact that they occasionally crash into each other. Have you seen what a train does to a car? Gives me goosebumps!