Washington subway crash

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by joelnwil

... It will probably turn out that somebody at the Metro did something stupid, was high on coke, or something else. Or maybe texting, like the driver in Boston.
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Originally Posted by glatt

... In a nutshell, the trains are driven by computers. Autopilot, if you will. The computers get their information from thousands of sensors throughout the system. Those sensors are on the trains themselves (mainly in the doors) and also on the tracks. Either there is a problem with the computer, or there was a faulty sensor somewhere. The thing is, there are supposed to be multiple layers of safety so that one faulty sensor won't result in a crash. Sensors in trains fail all the time, and they take those trains out of service and fix the sensors. Those failed sensors never result in a crash, so there has to be more going on here. Probably some sensor on the track.
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Uh-oh. Stupid, stoned, texting computers. What next?