Tech bros have been inventing self-drive cars that no-one actually wants. One bloke has realised that they have a really good use and country pub owners agree.
Before the 1980s it was obligatory for people to drive out to country pubs and get spectacularly drunk. At the end of an evening of ribaldry, driving home completely plastered was an integral part of the fun. Monday morning workplace conversations would involve comparisons of how people managed to drive home cross-eyed and incapable.
At some point in the early 1980s it got a little out of hand and there was a clampdown with reduced permissible blood alcohol limits and increased testing of drivers by the police. The era of the country pub booze sessions was over. Many country pubs suffered a massive loss of trade and many closed down.
Eric Shunn (Tottenham Hotspur) was down the pub with his mates talking about how pointless self-driving cars are. Nobody had ever called out for them. They ruined the fun of driving, and many of his mates who drove delivery vans and lorries might be out of a job. Suddenly he had a revelation. They would be brilliant for trips to country pubs when everybody could get hammered. There would be no need for a designated driver.
The landlord of the Shafted Duck in Daresbury, Gerry Attrick (53), thought it was a great idea.