‘Perfect metaphor:’ Reactions to driverless bus adorned with the Union Flag

Self-driving buses will drive alongside other traffic for the first time in the UK.

The three-wheel ‘autonomous passenger shuttles’ were launched Thursday at the University of Cambridge.

One of the vehicles ferried transport minister Rachel Maclean around the university’s West Cambridge campus.

Transport Minister Rachel Maclean, who travelled on the shuttle, feels the move is a groundbreaking one for the future of technology in the UK.

She told Cambridgeshire Live: “Self-driving vehicles present a number of opportunities for the UK from providing safer, greener and more reliable transport services to creating tens of thousands of well-paid and skilled jobs across the nation.

“This project is hugely exciting and is an example of how self-driving vehicles could make it easier for people to travel on the UK’s future public transport network.”

The all-electric shuttles can carry ten passengers at speeds of up to 20 miles per hour. They have a range of 100 miles.

Reactions

Technology and safety issues aside, the shape and Union Jack painted on the side, was what got social media users accelerating to their smartphones.

1.

This driverless bus adorned with the Union Flag is the perfect visual metaphor for a country in the grips of such inept and directionless leadership. It’s practically an art piece. pic.twitter.com/yxxzOGVQ0k

— Jonathan Pie (@JonathanPieNews) May 28, 2021

2.

The transport minister, wearing a Union flag in a bus covered with a Union Flag.

The UK is completely sick in the head. pic.twitter.com/QQbZ0BtiL5

— Judge Grumpy (@Obey___) May 28, 2021

3.

Draping the union flag across it makes it somehow so much more acceptable, right?

Be it a Driverless Bus. Or a Driverless Government pic.twitter.com/sUExU9GojG

— Philip C James ?️?️ (@PhilipCJames) May 28, 2021

4.

This bus looks both furious and kind of dangerously useless, so the Union flag decal seems pretty apt. pic.twitter.com/0YfCEGWmUR

— Fraser Campbell (@FraserC69) May 28, 2021

5.

The Union flag absurd-o-bus looks stunned or squashed, like a part of it is missing. That would be the Scotland part, I expect. pic.twitter.com/SV3yWb0BYe

— Helen the Zen ??????? ? (@helenmallam) May 28, 2021

6.

I love Cambridge but their new union flag-coloured driverless shuttles are simply Brexit in bus form pic.twitter.com/1TgQO1NzjJ

— Kris Griffiths (@KrisGriffiths) May 28, 2021

7.

Even the face of the bus looks pissed off & angry!. https://t.co/2YYA7RoppY

— Kerry ?? Pro-EU, Pro-Peace, Anti-Tory. (@Rozkez67) May 28, 2021

8.

This bus, cloaked in the Union Flag, is driverless.
Is this a metaphor for today’s UK? https://t.co/pHGdCwzkrB

— Fozzy ?? (@fozzypig) May 28, 2021

9.

It looks like a Brexit bus – so of course it is driverless! https://t.co/G5mpEVUkAR

— Andrew Adonis (@Andrew_Adonis) May 28, 2021

Related: Cummings says it’s “perfectly reasonable” to think Remain should have won