Watch: Ben Lowry travels in a driverless taxi in America and writes about how he can't wait to see them in Northern Ireland

​The pilot scheme, which began last month and is continuing into September, will provide a shuttle between the Titanic railway station (which I remember as Bridge End) and the Titanic Quarter. It is being used by the public, including students, tourists and commuters.

This is big development in public transport, almost as big as the arrival of trains almost 200 years ago (the Belfast to Lisburn line opened in the 1830s). But while Britain pioneered trains, America is leading the way in this stunning new technology. And it reminds me of my sample of travelling in such driverless vehicles last year – taxis in the US.

The web version of this essay will include a video I took of just such a journey in Arizona, a week or two after I did the same in California. In fact, by coincidence, I was in the only three cities in the US that had these driverless taxis – San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix. As of this summer, Atlanta in Georgia and Austin in Texas now have them too. And I very much look forward to their arrival in Northern Ireland.

My own experience of these vehicles, which portend an exciting new future in transport, happened as follows: I was in America for the election, visiting San Francisco, the city where the Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris made her name, and then the swing states of Arizona and Nevada. I also was in LA in southern California.

When I was there I met an old school friend, and he ordered a taxi when we went out for a meal. He then didn’t tell me anything about the taxi, and we were standing there when a white a vehicle turned up with a strange contraption on the use. I had seen such taxis in San Francisco days earlier and assumed that they were state of the art electric vehicles, and that the thing on their roof was perhaps for solar power. I think I also subconsciously assumed that the odd saucer-like thing on the roof might have been a hyper modern equivalent of those almost taxi-like signs you see on Domino’s Pizza cars driving round places such as Belfast (I was not in fact sure which company had those funny shaped items on their roof until I googled it for this article and it confirmed a vague memory I had that it was Domino’s – I have seen others including estate agents use funny-shaped items on their roof for publicity).

So I was delighted when we got into this taxi and there was no driver. My friend has surprised other guests from outside LA calling such cars. Our taxi journey that evening was short but memorable.

Then, when I was in Phoenix on polling day, I was concentrating on the election and curious to see if my hunch that Donald Trump was going to win (I wrote several articles for this newspaper explaining my reasoning, such as this one on the eve of the election explaining why I still thought him favourite) would be borne out. So I went to an election centre in one of the most marginal counties, part of Phoenix, in one of the most marginal states, Arizona, in the entire US to meet voters and ask them how they had cast their ballot. I spent much of the afternoon and evening there (click here for the article I wrote), then wanted to go back to my hotel to write it all up and spend the night watching the results on TV. Before doing so I went to a Subway fast food chain to eat and order my taxi on Uber.

Many readers will not know what Uber is – it is mainly known for being a taxi service that you hail by using an ‘app’ (application) on your smart phone. I was slow to use it because it is not particularly widespread in Northern Ireland and also because I have luddite tendencies (ie like the workers in the 1800s who bitterly resisted the technological advances of the industrial revolution, fearing it would put them out of a job). For years I saw no need for mobile phones to have fancy accessories – I just wanted to be able to make calls on them and to have models that had long batteries that did not always need charging.

Wow I got that wrong about phones. I use my phone now for email, to take videos for this newspaper, for conference calls, to read things online, and so on – including now calling Ubers.

To anyone who has not used an Uber taxi, the main difference between it and a normal one is the method of hailing it. You fetch it by your phone and are then given options of available nearby Ubers, the estimated time wait until the taxi will reach you, and the fare. Sometimes I go for more expensive taxi if it will come more quickly, but I never do so in order to get a more luxurious vehicle – I just want the taxi that can come soonest, and after that the cheapest one, no matter what the vehicle.

That night the cheapest Uber on offer was only seven minutes away, so I booked it. To my astonishment a Waymo turned up (a Waymo is one of these driverless white cars with the satellite-type contraption on the roof). I was surprised, because these normally cost more.

The rest of my experience is recorded on the video that will be on the web version of this article. Suffice to say just a few things here: it is brilliant technology, such that I felt no danger. None. In the video I describe how it is like being driven by a mature, older, slow taxi driver – the sort of driver in whose vehicle you always feel safe. But I think that these driverless cars will be far, far safer than humans.

We have made strides towards safer roads – we report on page 8 about last year’s worrying death toll in NI, but it was far safer than NI roads in the 1990s or before.

I do have concerns about driverless technology. I love driving and hope we humans continue to be allowed to do so. I also wonder what it will mean for jobs. I have written before about how I have pondered becoming a long distance lorry driver for a non-stressful job! Now China is now testing driverless trucks!

Even so, driverless cars could be coming to the UK in two years, including NI if we adopt the same laws. And I can’t wait.

Ben Lowry (@Benlowry2) is News Letter editor