Artificial intelligence (AI) will make Dublin’s planned MetroLink obsolete and the Government should abandon the €10 billion project, according to businessman Dermot Desmond.
Instead, Mr Desmond has urged the Government to concentrate on the coming advantages of AI , where autonomously-driven vehicles (AVs) will cut car ownership dramatically in the decades ahead.
If approved, construction of the 18.8 km mostly-underground MetroLink should begin between 2028 and 2031, with services between Swords, Dublin Airport, Dublin city centre, and on to Charlemont in south Dublin city opening in early 2035.
[ MetroLink to Dublin Airport not needed, says Michael O’LearyOpens in new window ]
Equipped with driverless trains running every 3 minutes during peak hours, the MetroLink is proposed to carry 20,000 passengers each hour, each way when it opens.
RM Block
However, Mr Desmond is scathing of the plan, believing that public and private transportation is on the cusp globally of the biggest changes for a century or more on the back of the growth of AI.
The billionaire said he had believed that the Department of Finance should veto the MetroLink. “I think it will be useless, out of date in 10 or 15 years’ time. This is something that is not going to be required, it shouldn’t be planned.”
[ Decision on €9bn MetroLink rail project expected within weeksOpens in new window ]
AI and autonomous vehicles will cut the numbers of vehicles on the roads dramatically, he predicted: “I think you need to look at what’s going to happen in the future and then plan backwards.”
The billionaire investor has become increasingly interested in the subject of AI, sponsoring a conference in Belfast last month with Queen’s University, which heard from major speakers from the United States and elsewhere.
“Where the change that’s going to make a big difference to everybody in the world, not alone Ireland. I think that change is going to come out of transport,” Mr Desmond declared then.
“Within 15 to 25 years, I think it will be mandated that there will be autonomous vehicles. People will not be allowed to drive anything,” he said, adding that AI is already cutting travel times and saving energy.
“Public transport systems in the future will become much more efficient. Buses will know what and where the demand is and will organise themselves accordingly,” said Mr Desmond, who urged the Government to plan for wide-scale AV bus services.
The changes to come will overturn every conception held today about transport in cities, with faster journeys, less pollution and far less demand for parking because there will be fewer private vehicles, replaced by robotaxis.
Most cars today lie idle for 80 per cent of their lives. “The most optimistic case for Dublin is a reduction of 98 per cent in vehicle numbers,” he said, though he put the most realistic reduction at between 20 per cent and 60 per cent.
“AV cars will require less space on roads as they will be better able to travel efficiently if the margin for human error is removed,” he said. “We already live in a world where our phones anticipate when we will leave for work and tell us how long it will take.”
