I was intrigued to learn that Google founder Larry Page is the driving force behind the Kitty Hawk flying taxi drone.
This is a really clever bit of kit. Battery powered, it is a vertical-take- off and land aircraft, not dissimilar to the Harrier jump jet. Indeed it is all one step closer to the The Jetsons flying car, once the subject of science fiction fantasy.
It seems that in reality very soon the kings and queens of silicone valley may well be soaring majestically over our heads akin to knights of old, on their modern day geek-inspired steeds.
In reality the Kitty Hawk looks more like a giant majestic drone. What is really interesting with this technology is that it takes minutes to learn to fly it, and you do not need a pilot’s license.
In the USA you can fly it over water in non-congested areas and it opens up a whole new can of worms about independent choices of travel and the role of the driverless future of transport.
On this subject, I attended the excellent Transport Focus national bus passenger survey results in Reading. At the end was a question about driverless buses.
Opinion, as you might expect, varied but Reading Buses CEO Martijn Gilbert summed it up when he said that come what may, whatever brilliance the technology may offer (bearing in mind the self-driving trains on the Docklands Light Railway have been with us since 1987) what people want is reassurance that only a fellow human being can offer. Be that for safety, or more likely the knowledge that someone is around if needed.
As someone who champions the cause of public transport I support the role that technology brings, but I always go back to my mantra: The bus industry is always about people, always was, always will be.
Finally as a drone owner myself I have to say it is a brilliant bit of kit, some of the aerial footage that you can shoot is truly amazing. The design and ease of control is a joy, although my first experience was not fantastic.
I brought a decent-looking drone reduced from £149 to £38. It said the controls were easy to use, although that did not prove to be the case.
Bit by bit I started to get to grips with it, although I lost it twice, spending hours searching for the darned thing.
And then one windy Sunday afternoon, I made a fatal error. As it took off it went high, then higher still, before Braveheart-like it decided that it would make a break for freedom. And with that the thing went straight off into space looking for the mothership (Argos?), never to be seen again.
