China’s crazy car-straddling elevated is reportedly just a giant scam

After first trial the bus has just collected dust. Beijing police have arrested 30 people.

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[Destructicus]

If you're going to scam investors, isn't it kind of a prerequisite that you don't actually go ahead and build the thing?

I am an expert linguist (not really) and this is all a mistranslation. The perps weren't arrested for scamming their investors. They were arrested for not doing it properly.

 

[Destructicus]

Vehicles taller than 2.2 metres (slightly over 7 feet) had to find another route around the TEB. When the TEB turned a corner, every vehicle underneath had to wait for the manoeuvre to complete before going around the corner themselves. And no one had really worked out how to solve the issue of cars driving into the "legs" of the bus.

These issues could be solved if driving becomes fully automated. Tall vehicles could be programmed to avoid TEB routes and turning maneuvers could be efficiently co-ordinated by computers. In the world we currently live in though, the TEB is a terrible idea.

Once driving becomes fully automated, you don't really need this sort of wonkery.

(1) Traffic will be reduced drastically because a lot of the "frictional" causes of traffic will disappear due to improved following distances and reaction time. Heck, you can even restripe most roads to get more lanes.

(2) Sitting in a car in traffic won't be as big of a deal because you can sleep/work/do whatever you want.