[bobthepanda]

Right now to ensure absolute safety trains are mechanically coupled, which can't be done while moving, and takes a few minutes to do safely.

I believe most AV convoys propose virtual coupling to get around this, but the failure scenario where something in the convoy comes to a sudden stop and the other things in the convoy don't, is pretty gnarly. Modern trains have a bunch of mandated safety measures in their mechanical coupling to prevent nasty things like jackknifing, or even worse, telescoping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescoping_(rail_cars)

[01HNNWZ0MV43FF]

This is speculation but I wonder if you could have cars couple with "cat whiskers" that are mechanical but not load bearing. so you don't need to rely on wireless comms for coordination

[bobthepanda]

I’m not sure what load bearing means in this context.

Generally speaking mechanical coupling takes a while because you really, really do not want an errant car to detach during its journey. In the worst possible case scenario, a rear carriage has decoupled from a train and then the following one has crashed into said carriage. https://localtvkstu.wordpress.com/2013/11/05/crews-respond-t...