Driverless Cars

[Chinahand 3,284]

I'm old enough to remember the fleet of Mini Metros testing on the Island's roads - I feel the IOM is missing out on a trick by not opening its roads to Driverless cars as an extra-urban testbed for these vehicles.

 

The UK is making cities bid for the pleasure - FT link.

 

Should we welcome them in with open arms - quick legislative change and negotiation with Tower Insurance etc?

 

 

[Donald Trumps 5,536]

Anything has to be better than Manx driving

[quilp 10,522]

 

[Moghrey Mie 1,499]

The IOM should certainly go for electric cars. Nobody is going very far on the island.

There should be charging points in every car park by now.

[finlo 4,719]

The IOM should certainly go for electric cars. Nobody is going very far on the island.

There should be charging points in every car park by now.

With the price of our leccy?

[Shake me up Judy 5,143]

There are enough driverless cars on the Island already. I pass them every week.

[Cliff Hazard 228]

There's one parked outside my house right now.

[Moghrey Mie 1,499]

 

The IOM should certainly go for electric cars. Nobody is going very far on the island.

There should be charging points in every car park by now.

With the price of our leccy?

Compared to the price of our petrol?

[AcousticallyChallenged 854]

In some ways, the Island is too small in scope for driverless cars because there is no inner city environment for it to have to contend with, however, the rural side of things can present challenges such as sudden tractors around blind corners, sheep in the road and so forth.

 

Electric cars are well suited to the Island because you can't really drive more than a certain distance without ending up going batty.

[Max Power 6,384]

The trouble at the moment with electric cars on the island is that we don't offer the £5000 subsidy to buyers as in the UK. Also our terrain puts the battery under a lot more load than much of the urban areas of the UK.

[steven ! 70]

Anything has to be better than Manx driving

 

There are enough driverless cars on the Island already. I pass them every week.

Actually good points, but that is the point.

 

I do a fair bit of motorway driving and, for example, see all these HGVs trundling up the slow lane. I would much prefer those wagons controlled digitally or even by someone in a control room than a human in the cab who just might not be quite up to the job, for whatever reasons.

 

The Isle of Man has one huge power and that is to make its own laws, quickly and effectively.

 

Such as motorrcyscle racing on public roads, or various tax and finance laws, or even to fix its own alcohol laws (that is the main reason we had a huge tourist industry - far more than sandy beaches and music halls and all that stuff).

 

The Isle of Man Government needs to stick its neck out. Unfortunately, it needs to take good advice and it only seems to get its inner circle advice from the likes of slavering dinner parties and lodge meetings.

 

 

 

My tuppence worth tonight.

[Shake me up Judy 5,143]

We await Longworth's purchase and trials of the first driverless buses.

[Albert Tatlock 11,319]

Give them time. Government are still into their 20 year study of workerless road works.

[woody2 5,021]

My ten pints worth tonight.

fixed

 

India has a better standard of driving than the rock

 

last week the iom cadets minibus was playing chicken with a oncoming hgv on the mainland, glad my kids weren't in the back.......

[Moghrey Mie 1,499]

The trouble at the moment with electric cars on the island is that we don't offer the £5000 subsidy to buyers as in the UK. Also our terrain puts the battery under a lot more load than much of the urban areas of the UK.

Half the population would be tootling around Douglas, Onchan and Braddan. It's hardly tough terrain for an electric car.