The Hands Free Farm area includes around 1.5km of public rights of way over which our autonomous vehicles will be travelling. The safety of the public is our top priority during the project and we will be ensuring this by the following means:
Signs are placed at the public entry points to the Hands Free Farm area. These signs will indicate whether vehicle operations are taking place and, if they are, will provide further information.
At all times during the project there will be a driver-in-charge who is able to bring the vehicle to a safe stop.
Our initial operations will not involve any autonomous vehicle movements along the public rights of way.
During this phase of the project, there will be spotters placed to ensure that no-one is able to approach our vehicle while it is operating autonomously.
We would ask that members of the public who are using the rights of way within the Hands Free Farm observe the following precautions:
Please keep dogs under effective control if autonomous vehicle operations are taking place. Dogs may react unpredictably around driverless vehicles, if in doubt please put your dog on a lead.
Please take note of the Hands Free Farm signs if they indicate that vehicle operations are taking place, the information displayed will change as our project progresses.
Please follow the advice of our spotters and speak to them if you have any questions or concerns.
Please treat our autonomous vehicles as you would treat farm animals or any other working agricultural vehicle: Do not approach while they are working.
