Good point. If trains are empty might as well use them.
Comment on In China, delivery robots now ride the subway to restock 7-Eleven stores
nyan@lemmy.cafe 5 days ago
If the bots are required to have paid transit passes and if they’re confined to off-peak hours when the subways aren’t full anyway, this could actually be a net win for mass transit: they’re putting money into the system while consuming relatively few resources, so the bots can fund improvements that benefit humans.
drmoose@lemmy.world 5 days ago
kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 5 days ago
Yeah. Just need to make sure that sensible restrictions are in place to prevent the creep into turning a public service into primarily a commercial one. Starts out only running during off hours, then running during active hours at a reduced rate, then it’s got dedicated cars for the robots, then it overflows into passenger cars… you see where it’s going. Best to set up guard rails before it’s a problem.
cheesorist@lemmy.world 1 day ago
This is China, not the US. They’re not as greedy and disgusting.
kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Just because it’s the US doesn’t mean it’s not bigoted to generalize people, especially with such insulting and hateful generalizations. And Chinese companies are as motivated by capitalism as any company is, which means maximizing cost efficiency. Putting policies in place to protect other priorities for the public good is sensible no matter where you are.
MaggiWuerze@feddit.org 3 days ago
I actually thought a dedicated car would be a good solution. Of course as an additional car, not as a replacement for a passenger one. Then you could optimize the interior for these robots