Eli5: The train is on a track that determines where it will go, so what does the Engineer do?
In: Technology
For the perfect visual answer to this question go watch the Denzel Washington and Chris Pine thriller, “Unstoppable”. The movie is not Hollywood fiction as it is based on a real life incident that occurred in Ohio 9 years prior, where the operator activated the wrong setting while he climbed out to correct a misaligned switch in the railyard.
The result was a 65 mile, unmanned journey that ran through anything it’s path.
In the future, I am sure technology can be developed to have AI systems control the train, but I imagine there will always be a manned presence on the train due to the events of the film. If the AI or computer were to fail for any reason, human intervention would be necessary.
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