Slight difference is that there are more lanes and there's dual usage (daytime - regular auto access, nighttime - truck train access).

The benefit is to utilize existing access rights and infrastructure.

The freight rail network is fairly expansive[0] -- sure not as much as the Interstate road network, but has pretty good coverage.

The reason trucks are so popular and necessary is because they go beyond the interstate highways. Until self-driving trucks handle that portion safely and successfully, they're not much more useful than trains.

[0] https://external-preview.redd.it/VPeHZG0mzsNhJGAHJglxW1jn4Y0...

This wildly misunderstands the nature of modern trucking. Trucks have many different roles, they're not just trains that don't need tracks. Trucks can work as on-demand transport, they can do low-volume, infrequent trips, they can aggregate and offload containers much easier, they're universally receivable at both ends with a minimum of infrastructure, etc. These autonomous trucks are competing with long haul human-driven trucks taking stuff from one depot to another, not short haul trucks.

Can you come up with a plan to ship Budweiser beer to the consumers around the country via train?

I might, for a better tasting beer ;)

Yeah, sounds almost like Musk's hare-brained plan to put self-driving teslas (driving with only a couple metres separation) in paved tunnels. I guess some people really hate sharing the bus/car/train with poor people

Quite the opposite - right now (or at least in the future unless interventions are added) poor people have no option but to submit themselves to driving sandwiched amongst with 10 ton trucks driven by who knows what, vibe coded, beta tested, "AI" software.