Scottish minister suggests making an island all self-driving

A Scottish minister has suggested that the government there make a “moon shot statement” to make an island or community completely self driving.

Glasgow Provan MSP Ivan McKee has told the Sunday Herald that Scotland could become a leader in automation by mounting a full-scale island experiment to test the technologies of the future.

“Somebody at some point should make a moonshot statement, at senior government level, that says we’re going to take a city, or an island – which would be really interesting – and make it self-driving,” he’s quoted as saying.   “You’d need to think of an island that doesn’t have a huge number of people, or a huge number of vehicles, which is self-contained.  Once you’ve made that statement, it then allows you to start bringing in investment, worldwide, and people who want to be part of it. You can then set up some kind of industrial hub to work on it.”

The paper adds that Mr McKee believes Scotland could find solutions to these problems with a major island experiment and help make global advancements on the software used to run the technologies of tomorrow.