As an innovation trial, Act Party leader and current Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour (pictured) would like to see driverless taxis being allowed to operate at Queenstown Airport. In a speech last week, he suggested New Zealand become a testing ground for emerging technologies by allowing companies to temporarily bypass regulations. He said it’s important NZ start experimenting more if we want see technology appear instead of overseas nations overlooking us. Trialling self-driving taxis from Queenstown Airport was one example he cited. He told Heather du Plessis-Allan on Newstalk ZB: “We’ve talked to people — we don’t want to say exactly who — but there’s certainly people who would be interested in bringing autonomous taxi services to NZ.” An Act Party newsletter suggests it’d be Uber trialling driverless cabs at Queenstown Airport. Seymour also told Du Plessis-Allan he’d been in an autonomous taxi in San Francisco. “... they are leaving us behind because they allow stuff that we don’t.” — PHILIP CHANDLER
