> Autonomous cars are about to make this entire project redundant.
No, they aren't. One of the major motivations of the project is avoiding both the environmental cost of operating autos on the same route, and as an alternative to the infrastructure costs (including land lost from other uses) of adding the road capacity to handle volume growth on the routes the HSR will support.
Autonomous cars don't address either of those concerns.
One of the major motivations of the project is avoiding both the environmental cost of operating autos on the same route, and as an alternative to the infrastructure costs (including land lost from other uses) of adding the road capacity to handle volume growth on the routes the HSR will support.
This is absurd. The cars are going to get much more efficient, and the roads are already there.
The road capacity is not already there, and to meet the increased capacity needed will be quite expensive. The cost avoided in terms of road load was a major justification for HSR.
You don't think that a fleet of networked, semi-autonomous vehicles will be at least several hundred percent more efficient at using existing road space than human drivers?
No, they aren't. One of the major motivations of the project is avoiding both the environmental cost of operating autos on the same route, and as an alternative to the infrastructure costs (including land lost from other uses) of adding the road capacity to handle volume growth on the routes the HSR will support.
Autonomous cars don't address either of those concerns.