Russian Railways received first unmanned locomotives

UFA, 25 October 2019. /Bashinform News Agency/ translated by Tatiana Aksyutina/.

Russian Railways (RZD) received the first unmanned shunting locomotives. The vehicles were transferred to Russian Railways in early October and are being tested, «Radio Sputnik» (Moscow) reports.

Olga Uskova, president of Cognitive Technologies spoke about the potential of such technologies at the Open Innovations Forum in Skolkovo. Unmanned shunting locomotives are unique to Russian Railways in that they operate in all weather patterns, even with snowy tracks and traffic lights.

Earlier, the president of the company said that unmanned trains in Russia could become a reality in two or three years. Since foreign firms could not cope with the weather, she said that it would likely to be domestic developments. Uskova noted that this is a high level of mathematics, which is not found anywhere in the world.

According to Olga Uskova, the German company Siemens and the Swiss company Stadler have already been asked to show them how unmanned locomotives drive. She believes that Russian Railways will be able to sell its unmanned locomotives around the world, as the systems operate 100 out of 100 in difficult weather conditions, and confidence in potential is only growing.