Calls to revive Jersey driverless car plans

Jersey should not give up on plans to regulate driverless cars after the government abandoned draft laws, a company and environmentalists say.

Between £35,000 and £40,000 was spent on drafting such laws, according to a recent report.

Nick Perchard-Rees, CEO of electric car hire company EVIe, said: "We're not asking for something huge to be done here. We're asking for the policy to be put in place that allows trials to be run. That data can then be used for our incumbent ministers to make decisions and data-driven decisions."

Environmental groups said the government should look at changing infrastructure and move away from "car-centric" models, and driverless cars could help moves towards that.

Kate Huntington, who runs the Better Journeys initiative in Jersey, said: "If we have driverless cars, that allows people to remove themselves from car ownership... then yeah, absolutely, I think that's the direction to go, and I'd be very, very supportive of that."

"I'm just not confident that that's the current angle being taken."

There have been concerns within the taxi community about the risk for people who needed assistance, and safety risks.

Mick Tostevin, secretary of the Jersey Taxi Drivers Association, said he had "mixed opinions" about the use of automated vehicles, but thought it would "eventually happen".

He said: "Currently there appears to have been a fair amount of accidents and incidents surrounding automated vehicles, and questions from a taxi point of view, such as handling luggage, wheelchair and passengers with disabilities, etc.

"A lot of our roads are very narrow and meeting other vehicles, cyclists, horses, dog walkers, etc, could present significant issues."

Trials in other places, including Orkney, seek to gather data to address those concerns.

Follow BBC Jersey on X and Facebook. Send your story ideas to channel.islands@bbc.co.uk.