Latest news with #MikeDawson

Could this self-driving Belfast bus soon be taking you to work or the airport?

Belfast Telegraph

5 days ago

Automotive
Belfast Telegraph

Could this self-driving Belfast bus soon be taking you to work or the airport?

The Harlander is planned to operate 12 hours a day, carrying up to nine passengers at a time on a route around Belfast's Titanic Quarter. Belfast Harbour hopes to expand these routes in coming years, connecting to the airport and potentially connecting other areas of Northern Ireland to more mainstream public transport. The driverless shuttle is currently completing safety testing, but can already be seen doing practice runs around roads in the area. Belfast Harbour plans the Harlander to run a 15-20 route, on a timetable aligned to the arrival of trains at Titanic Halt station. The timetable currently has approximate running hours from 6:30am to 6:30/7:00pm. The shuttle will initially run with safety attendants sitting at the driver's seat, however Belfast Harbour aims to eventually run it with no direct human input at all. Mike Dawson, 53, the people and digital transformation director at Belfast Harbour, says 'the purpose of the bus is to create last mile connectivity between the Titanic halt and initially, the Catalyst building. 'Then we have a loop of about four stops on the estate that it will stop on initially, to get a model and a blueprint that's viable for other services.' Mr Dawson says there are several goals for the current testing phase: 'What we'd like to do is have this run, learn from it, particularly the passenger experience and customer experience. 'What does that look like? What does that feel like? What needs to be tweaked, improved? How do you make sure there are no barriers to entry for people to be able to get on and access it?' Self-driving vehicles can be an unnerving technology for some, but Mr Dawson wants the shuttle to become 'reassuringly boring, that you're just getting transported from point A to point B.' He says the advantage is 'cost, more than anything else.' 'Translink run a great service, the Glider, up and down. But when we looked at it, we wanted more people to potentially use the train. 'You've got that 1.3 miles, how do you get people to do that? If the weather's atrocious, you're putting people off. How can we incentivise people to have a seamless experience: you get on the train, you get on the Harlander, [it] takes you to Catalyst, you're at your place of work.' The shuttle has been designed in partnership with several other companies including eVersum, Oxa, Angoka, BT and Horiba Mira. eVersum is an Austrian company which develops electric buses, and they created a right-hand drive model specifically for the Harlander. The self-driving technology comes from Oxa, who Mr Dawson describes as 'world-class in this space'. Safety testing has been carried out by Coventry-based firm Horiba Mira who have 'tested to death' the vehicles. 'They have a model of the Harbour estate on their land, they've run this model for months and months and months. 'We're going to do the same here, we've been doing it for the last few weeks, we're going to do it for another three to four. We're very confident it does what it needs to do. But, fundamentally, you still have a driver's seat there, you still have a steering wheel, you still have the ability to intervene should it be necessary.' While there will be safety attendants sitting in the driver's seat at first, Mr Dawson says 'the truth is, it will largely run in autonomous mode.' There are plans to get the Hardlander to a 'level four' self-driving vehicle, where 'there is no safety attendant, there is no driver.' Mr Dawson said he 'would like to see' an expansion of self-driving transport across Belfast and Northern Ireland. 'We would like to see more of these, where you can create connectivity on the estate itself. 'We see this as a much bigger play regionally, not just for Northern Ireland, but also for GB, where you can get connectivity to those main routes. Imagine you had estates in the city where you had these types of routes feeding the Glider route. 'It doesn't replace bus drivers, it augments what we have in place today.' Joe O'Neill, chief executive of Belfast Harbour, says the Harlander is a vital cog in its five-year strategy' and wants better connectivity 'with some of our other services, like Cruise, bringing passengers into the city. 'Connectivity to the airport is an important one as well, how we can work with the Belfast City Airport,' he added.

Could this self-driving bus soon be taking you to work or the airport?

Belfast Telegraph

5 days ago

Business
Belfast Telegraph

Could this self-driving bus soon be taking you to work or the airport?

A new self-driving shuttle bus was launched yesterday, ahead of going into service in Belfast Harbour in the coming months. The Harlander is planned to operate 12 hours a day, carrying up to nine passengers at a time on a route around Belfast's Titanic Quarter. Belfast Harbour hopes to expand these routes in coming years, connecting to the airport and potentially connecting other areas of Northern Ireland to more mainstream public transport. The driverless shuttle is currently completing safety testing, but can already be seen doing practice runs around roads in the area. Belfast Harbour plans the Harlander to run a 15-20 route, on a timetable aligned to the arrival of trains at Titanic Halt station. The timetable currently has approximate running hours from 6:30am to 6:30/7:00pm. The shuttle will initially run with safety attendants sitting at the driver's seat, however Belfast Harbour aims to eventually run it with no direct human input at all. Mike Dawson, 53, the people and digital transformation director at Belfast Harbour, says 'the purpose of the bus is to create last mile connectivity between the Titanic halt and initially, the Catalyst building. 'Then we have a loop of about four stops on the estate that it will stop on initially, to get a model and a blueprint that's viable for other services.' Mr Dawson says there are several goals for the current testing phase: 'What we'd like to do is have this run, learn from it, particularly the passenger experience and customer experience. 'What does that look like? What does that feel like? What needs to be tweaked, improved? How do you make sure there are no barriers to entry for people to be able to get on and access it?' Self-driving vehicles can be an unnerving technology for some, but Mr Dawson wants the shuttle to become 'reassuringly boring, that you're just getting transported from point A to point B.' He says the advantage is 'cost, more than anything else.' 'Translink run a great service, the Glider, up and down. But when we looked at it, we wanted more people to potentially use the train. 'You've got that 1.3 miles, how do you get people to do that? If the weather's atrocious, you're putting people off. How can we incentivise people to have a seamless experience: you get on the train, you get on the Harlander, [it] takes you to Catalyst, you're at your place of work.' The shuttle has been designed in partnership with several other companies including eVersum, Oxa, Angoka, BT and Horiba Mira. eVersum is an Austrian company which develops electric buses, and they created a right-hand drive model specifically for the Harlander. The self-driving technology comes from Oxa, who Mr Dawson describes as 'world-class in this space'. Safety testing has been carried out by Coventry-based firm Horiba Mira who have 'tested to death' the vehicles. 'They have a model of the Harbour estate on their land, they've run this model for months and months and months. 'We're going to do the same here, we've been doing it for the last few weeks, we're going to do it for another three to four. We're very confident it does what it needs to do. But, fundamentally, you still have a driver's seat there, you still have a steering wheel, you still have the ability to intervene should it be necessary.' While there will be safety attendants sitting in the driver's seat at first, Mr Dawson says 'the truth is, it will largely run in autonomous mode.' There are plans to get the Hardlander to a 'level four' self-driving vehicle, where 'there is no safety attendant, there is no driver.' Mr Dawson said he 'would like to see' an expansion of self-driving transport across Belfast and Northern Ireland. 'We would like to see more of these, where you can create connectivity on the estate itself. 'We see this as a much bigger play regionally, not just for Northern Ireland, but also for GB, where you can get connectivity to those main routes. Imagine you had estates in the city where you had these types of routes feeding the Glider route. 'It doesn't replace bus drivers, it augments what we have in place today.' Joe O'Neill, chief executive of Belfast Harbour, says the Harlander is a vital cog in its five-year strategy' and wants better connectivity 'with some of our other services, like Cruise, bringing passengers into the city. 'Connectivity to the airport is an important one as well, how we can work with the Belfast City Airport,' he added.

Conservative says win in Miramichi-Grand Lake 'bittersweet' after national loss

CBC

30-04-2025

Politics
CBC

Conservative says win in Miramichi-Grand Lake 'bittersweet' after national loss

While most of New Brunswick's 10 ridings were settled relatively early on election night, one stood out: Miramichi-Grand Lake. Both Conservative Mike Dawson and Liberal Lisa Harris took the lead at different points during a long night of vote-counting. Harris conceded the race early Tuesday, but even this didn't bring sheer elation to the victor. Dawson was happy about his win — he got 18,431 votes to Harris's 18,037 — but the failure of the Conservatives to win nationally hurt. "It's bittersweet," Dawson, a Progressive Conservative MLA since 2022, said in an interview Tuesday.. "We were expecting better results federally across the country. "But provincially and locally it turned out well, but federally wasn't what we were expecting." Dawson's win ensured New Brunswick's electoral map would stay exactly as it was the last time, with six Liberals and four Conservatives winning election. The riding is large and rural, including downtown Miramichi down to Grand Lake as well as part of the Acadian Peninsula and parts of Kent County. Canada's dispute with U.S. President Donald Trump over trade was a central issue in the federal election and got credit for helping the Liberals win, but Dawson said he didn't hear much about Trump while out knocking on doors. "A lot of the stuff we heard, or most of the stuff we heard, was all about cost of living." WATCH | Mike Dawson reflects on local victory alongside national disappointment: Despite the national loss, Dawson said, his own focus is the same. "I'm still going to do the same thing I was doing, whether we were in power or not power. So it doesn't change much." Dawson jumped into the race after Jake Stewart, who'd held the seat for the Conservatives in the last Parliament, decided not to reoffer. There had been resignations from Stewart's office and speculation he wouldn't be able to win. Dawson said he and Stewart "have always been fairly close," but there wasn't much mention of the former MP when speaking with voters. "People were fixated on what's happening federally and with the local issues an,d that was most of the concerns at the door." Some hope Dawson focuses on local issues Paddy Vautour of Miramichi said he was glad the Conservatives won the riding, "but I thought it would go a lot better overall." Vautour said he supported Dawson, who he said didn't knock on his door this election. "He didn't have to," Autour said. "I'm a purebread Conservative." He said seniors' pensions were the biggest election issue for him, and it was disappointing the election emphasis was so heavy on Trump. "It's not enough to live on, everything's going up. It's not easy to live on 700-some dollars a month, you know?" Maggie Clark, 18, also lives in Miramichi, and said she would have liked to see the Conservatives win the country as well. "I wasn't sure who was going to win because it was so tight," she said. But with Dawson winning, she said she hopes for more focus on the community. "I'm hoping that we get, like, just more focus on community and maybe the drugs here, focus on that a bit more, maybe lower the drug crime rates and stuff like that." Different reactions in Minto At the other end of the riding, in Minto, reaction from voters who spoke with CBC News was more mixed. Kevin Murphy, a Liberal voter, said he didn't like former prime minister Justin Trudeau, but with Mark Carney as prime minister, "I think I feel more comfortable going forward for the next four years." Sebastien Riley, a first-time voter who just turned 18, said affordability was top of mind, and he hoped for a Conservative government. "I mean, we're graduating in about a month and a half now. So we're kind of thinking about our future and trying to figure out if we're going to be able to afford anywhere to live other than our parent's basement." Franco Morocco said he was disappointed that third parties took such a hit this election. "It's rather sad that it's always that way," he said. "We're going to eventually end up probably like the U.S., with a two-party system, and it just never changes. "I wish there was a way for people to, you know, like, get together and say, like, we need some real change in this country."