Back on September 24, 2025 at around 8:37 a.m. in the morning on San Francisco Muni’s N‑Judah train line, the train operator fell asleep. Onboard video shows his head down and then nodding off seconds before the track curves near the tunnel exit.
The train reached 50 miles per hour, blews through the Duboce/Noe stop, and halted about a half‑block later on Duboce Ave – cutting off a westbound car. Riders were thrown off balance. At least one passenger suffered a concussion and neck sprain. Multiple people fell, at around 2 minutes 58 seconds into the video. (The line typically averages 8–10 mph in regular service. 50 mph is the top end of operating speed for the Siemens S200 train car.)
This was reported as a “mystery brake issue.” Video showed otherwise. An investigation found no mechanical failure, and attributed the event to “operator fatigue.” The operator was placed on non‑driving status under their contract.
San Francisco’s Municipal Transportation Agency says it’s reinforced fatigue training and is working with Siemens on location‑based speed‑limiting software so trains can’t overspeed in known tight curves. It seems like that should already have been in place.
It seems like release of onboard safety video after incidents should be routine, and as near-contemporaneous as possible. And it raises a question of why we still rely on people to control trains in this fashion. That’s only asking for disaster.
Just yesterday the driver of a Washington Dulles airport mobile lounge crashed it into the terminal. Surely San Francisco should be leading the way putting Waymo in charge of these trains, and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority should follow suit?
100 %, thanks, Gary.
‘Safety first. Always.’
Anyway, so, Gary’s in-favor of automating everything and anything that can be, using ‘safety’ or ‘national security’ or ‘think of the children’ as the justification. Got it. Maybe it’s time. Is the tech ready? Perhaps it is.
But, let’s also talk about expanding the social safety net, adding universal basic income, because that a lot of folks who are not gonna have jobs soon. Sure, easy to pretend they’re just ‘lazy’ and ‘sleepy’ and need to ‘pick themselves up by their bootstraps’ and punch-down on the poor. Typical.
Then again. Do the billionaires all have their bunkers in NZ ready and exit-strategies mapped out? Are they confident those ‘guards’ are gonna remain loyal? ‘Do you hear the people sing?’
One word why humans are still in charge of transit trains. Unions.
And to be fair, running in mixed traffic for segments like Muni’s N does was until recently beyond the capability of autonomous vehicles.
Vancouver’s SkyTrain is the only fully automated subway/transit train in North America.
@1990 – thank you. I’ve been to Argentina and Uruguay 3x in the past 2 years, and I can vouch for the fact that more and more billionaires are building ‘escapeaways” for the if/when time comes. huge, self-sufficient estancias and blockaded ocean estates. Same with NZ and parts of Chile.
It’s a good thing population is on the decline in the Western world (and for that matter, east Asia, also) because what the heck would all the excess humans do if there are no jobs for them?
Leave it to some internet troll to throw out his political opinion. What the hell does politics have to do with this problem? NONE! The average BART operator will make about $76,000 a year. That’s not too bad unless you have 6 kids, two ex-wives and a ‘party all night’ lifestyle. That’s a personal problem…not a salary or political problem.
Yes, I used Vancouver’s Skytrain, this year, from the airport to the seaport: very nice and fully automated.
I used fully automated elevators nearly every day. I remember once in the ’70’s, some old city courthouse tower still had official elevator operators on duty. It was an odd experience.
I never understood why Vancouver’s Skytrain is the exception, while fully automated elevators are the standard.
And yes, the IAD planemates are fascinating living history in the historical town of Washington, D.C. Impossible to avoid when arriving on International flights. Hardly an international security measure.
“Anyway, so, Gary’s in-favor of automating everything and anything that can be…”
Ah, yes, the strawman, one of the classics.
@Thomas, @kimmea — Yes. Unions are a good thing. Robust social safety net. Progressive estate, income, and wealth taxes, especially on the 0.01%.
@Win Whitmire — “The lady doth protest too much, me thinks.” Bud, you proceeded to share your own opinion. Ignore or engage. That’s how it works.
@Mike P — And here I was told to believe that libertarians like UBI… hmm.
“Onboard video shows his head down and then nodding off seconds before the track curves near the tunnel exit.”
Gary: the driver is (actually) a woman, not a man.
@ 1990 – Automation isn’t ending work. The OECD says about 27% of jobs are at high risk of automation, but history shows time and time again that technology creates more roles than it destroys at the end of the day. The Industrial Revolution didn’t end work, and neither did the computer. Universal Basic Income sounds compassionate, but math exists. A $12,000 per-adult UBI would cost about three trillion dollars a year, basically the entire federal budget. Finland tried it, and guess what? It didn’t increase employment. Meanwhile, programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit actually raise employment and lift millions out of poverty at a fraction of the cost. So if the goal is dignity and opportunity, and not permanent dependency, that’s where the evidence leads.
Then again, facts and evidence don’t really seem to matter much to folks like you, and I’m sure you’d have been on the front lines of the Luddite movement in early 19th-century England, fighting tooth and nail against inevitable economic progress.
And as for “billionaires hiding in bunkers”? Please. A handful of rich guys buying property in New Zealand doesn’t prove capitalism is collapsing. It only proves they’ve read too many dystopian novels.
I think I saw Keanu and Sandra on the train
There is absolutely no reason to have human train operators in 2025 . . . except to allow politicians to please and payback civil service labor unions. It’s corrupt rent-seeking that harms safety, and will exist in the United States through the foreseeable future while train operators are replaced by computers in every other modern nation.
Yes, to more automation. Nothing has made the world rich as fast as automation. Compare living/working standards 1800 to 1850 to 1900 to 1950 to 2000. It’s exciting to imagine what 2050 will look like (and I might only be alive then because of automation). Pick a strata, the bottom 5%, the bottom 30%, the median, the top 25%, the top 3%, whatever. Each is richer, working less hours, and working under better conditions. Go ahead and find a few exceptions, it doesn’t change the overwhelming trend. I anticipate there will be a “the peak was decades ago, we are on the downside” argument that ignores the rearch that shows the inability to easily compare things when we have major changes (landlines to smart phones, cable to streaming, same day deliver over not being able to find it, etc.). And, the beauty is this increased societal wealth helps us deal with (and afford) measures that combat environmental consequences of growth. In real (inflation adjusted) terms, we are on target to having million-dollars incomes the norm. Of course, we are also taking actions that could prevent that by government interference and spending. Since automation began, every generation looks at automation and fears they will end up with no job because of it; so far, every generation has been wrong. If automation killed employment we’d be see 95% (or some such outrageous number) unemployment today after the automation since 1925.
@Mike Hunt — Tell me about this so-called “the dog that hasn’t barked”…
@This comes to mind — Efficiency doesn’t mean everyone gets rich. It means a few with ‘control’ over those ‘technologies’ get rich super fast. We need the guardrails and support systems for the rest of the people, (unless you think those with significant assets are the only ones who matter. Oh, yeah, probably that, right?)
These are basically large streetcars, often two or three coupled together. They operate in a subway downtown and in mixed street traffic elsewhere. Some lines like this one go through tunnels to get under the hills and to the outer neighborhoods. The lines opened a century ago as streetcars, but on the surface downtown.
This particular train came out of a 50 mph tunnel.