I WAS a part of history being made yesterday.
No, I didn’t buy a round.
But glasses definitely deserved to be raised as transport group Stagecoach unveiled the world’s first autonomous bus service.
My colleague at COPA Group, Andrea Munt and I provided event and media support at the launch of the self-driving bus service across the iconic Forth Road Bridge in Edinburgh.
Scottish Transport Minister Kevin Stewart officially launched the new service at an event yesterday featuring UK and international journalists.
Up before the crack of dawn, the new service had already featured on live broadcasts on BBC Breakfast and Good Morning Britain before I even approached the lectern at the Traffic Scotland National Control Centre, overlooking three spectacular bridges which span the Firth of Forth, to introduce the Transport Minister and the key partners in this groundbreaking project.
Elon Musk might have been talking about self-driving cars for a while, but this is believed to be the first registered bus service in the world to use full sized autonomous buses.
The trial service will run along a 14-mile route taking passengers across the Forth Road Bridge where 90% of the journey will be self-driven and 10% by a safety driver.
The new service, called AB1, will actually feature two members of staff on board – the safety driver in the driver’s seat to monitor the technology, and a ‘captain’ in the saloon to take tickets and answer customers’ questions.
The captain is there to demonstrate what a full-size autonomous bus might feel like in the future, when one member of staff can leave the cab while the computer does the driving, and engage with passengers, much like a conductor used to do.
The trial, known as CAVForth, which will now run until 2025, aims to demonstrate autonomous technology in a real-world environment transporting up to 10,000 passengers per week.
This key milestone in autonomous technology has been pioneered by Stagecoach, Britain’s largest bus company, alongside technology partner Fusion Processing, bus manufacturer Alexander Dennis and Transport Scotland.
It is the result of almost 10 years of research and development from Fusion Processing along with Edinburgh Napier University, Bristol Robotics Lab, and the University of the West of England and is part-funded by the UK Government’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV).
Fusion’s CAVStar system has already covered more than one million miles in tests including a Stagecoach bus driving itself around the group’s Sharston depot in Manchester where it was able to drive itself to be refuelled, washed and parked up for the night.
A fleet of five Alexander Dennis Enviro200AV vehicles will cover the new route, in mixed traffic, at up to 50mph across the iconic Forth Road Bridge from Ferrytoll Park & Ride, in Fife to Edinburgh Park Transport Interchange.
Ray O’Toole, executive chairman of Stagecoach said: “This is an incredibly exciting time, and we are delighted to see the hard work of all partners involved, pay off on the official launch by Scottish Transport Minister, Kevin Stewart.
“We are proud to be at the forefront of transport innovation with this project, marking a significant milestone for public transport and we look forward to welcoming our customers on board from Monday.”
:::
AFTER the conclusion of Stagecoach’s media launch event it was straight on a train back to Leeds to speak at a dinner last night.
Dan Smith, head of the Leeds office of private equity firm LDC and his colleague Jayne Dunford had asked if I would step in at short notice to both speak at and host a dinner at the Dakota Hotel.
The guests were all highly successful non-executive chairs and directors of great businesses in a wide variety of sectors.
When I saw the details of the speaker they were due to hear from I was a bit nonplussed.
Dr Angus Armstrong was educated at Harvard and Imperial College, has a PhD in economics and is an honorary professor at Stirling University.
I was educated at Huddersfield Poly, I have an E in ‘A’ level economics, a CSE grade 1 in maths and passed my cycling proficiency test
His fields of expertise are macroeconomics, financial systems, complexity and constitutional economics
I have a season ticket at Derby County.
Clearly I wasn’t going to preach to this highly successful audience about economics and business.
So I talked about storytelling.
The common thread in my career, whether in journalism, communications or events has been helping people tell their stories.
That seemed to strike a chord with those around the table who shared their own stories and those of their businesses and we all agreed that those businesses that aren’t able to articulate their story often struggle to succeed.
It was a fascinating evening and a great end to what was a long, but very fulfilling day.
:::
FAREWELL then Ken Buchanan.
The Scottish boxer who became world lightweight champion, was judged by experts to be one of the most successful and talented British boxers to have ever laced on gloves.
He died several weeks ago aged 77, in a care home in Edinburgh.
Buchanan’s ring exploits came before I got really interested in boxing but his achievements are up there with the greatest British boxers.
He is one of only a small handful of fighters to have left these shores and won a world title overseas.
He won the world lightweight title by outpointing the Panamanian fighter Ismael Laguna in the Puerto Rican capital San Juan in 1970.
Former BBC boxing commentator Mike Costello, now with the broadcaster DAZN, has said: “The venue, the conditions, the quality of opposition and the circumstances around the contest persuade me to rank Buchanan’s win against the Panamanian Ismael Laguna as the best by a British boxer in my lifetime.”
Very few Brits had made the trip to South America but one of them was a reporter based in New York for the Daily Mirror called David Wright.
David began his career with my parents on the renowned Derby news agency Raymonds and, like many of its talented alumni, left to pursue a journalism career on a national and international stage.
David has since passed away, but when he returned to Derby many years ago from Florida where he then worked for the National Enquirer magazine, he visited my parents and I enjoyed chatting to him about his incredible career.
He had flown in a helicopter over Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch in search of a story and he told me about the time he covered Ken Buchanan’s epic contest with Ismael Laguna.
Most of those in the arena were cheering for the champion and the plucky Scots challenger was given little chance in the furnace-like conditions, despite his obvious talent.
When the fight went to the judges’ scorecards, David Wright managed to get into the ring, already filled with officials and hangers on.
There was a long delay in the announcement of the decision, prompting many to believe it would go in favour of the champion.
David got a glimpse of the judges’ scores before the result was announced.
He saw that the judges had scored Buchanan the winner and went over to tell him and his trainer Eddie Thomas the news in their corner.
The three were already embracing when the ring announcer told the rest of the stadium amid unsurprising pandemonium.
In a great obituary in The Guardian, boxing writer John Rawling recounted how a story about Buchanan’s rematch with Laguna in 1971 has been written into boxing folklore and inspired a Hollywood film scene.
“Tissue around Buchanan’s eye was so badly swollen that his vision was being affected.
“Unseen by the referee, Buchanan’s Welsh trainer, Eddie Thomas, sliced the swelling open using a razor blade. Blood gushed out, but Buchanan’s sight was restored, allowing him to go on to win the fight.
“A similar gruesome scenario was enacted in the first of the Rocky films when Sylvester Stallone instructs his trainer to cut his eye open in his heavyweight title fight against Apollo Creed.”
Ken Buchanan lost his world lightweight title in 1972 against the legendary Roberto Duran.
The fight ended in the 13th round after Buchanan claimed he suffered an illegal punch to the groin from the Panamanian.
He said he felt the pain of the blow for the rest of his life.
Ken Buchanan really was one of the greatest British boxers. And a good man too, by all accounts.
:::
I THINK it could catch on.
The picturesque Yorkshire Dales town of Masham has brought back its Cow Pat Competition after a 25-year absence.
The competition saw four cows – specially named for the occasion Storm Pooper, Harry Plopper, Poo Patrol and Daisy Dung – let out into a field on Bank Holiday Monday.
The land had been divided into squares, and tickets sold in advance at £1 per square.
Whichever square the first cowpat landed won the ticket holder a £2,000 prize.
Hundreds of hopefuls waited to see if they had won the big prize and after nearly an hour’s wait, it was Storm Pooper who produced the goods on local woman Kathryn Driver’s square.
She said: “I can’t believe it! It’s amazing. My mum got the ticket for me, so I’m going to use the money to pay for a holiday and take my mum away.”
The event raised £5,000, which will go towards the purchase of Masham Community Office’s building, The Old Police Station, retaining it as a community hub.
I don’t know why but this rustic divertissement appealed to me.
Perhaps it is because I grew up in a village where the annual fete featured the usual games including a tombola, a bran tub and the most exciting competition was welly wanging.
No dear, I said wanging.
Have a great weekend.
If you have enjoyed reading this blog please feel free to like it and leave a comment by clicking the link below.
https://www.linkedin.com/
If you haven’t enjoyed reading this, then feel free to make your views known too!