How would you feel
about taking a ride in a driverless vehicle? I’m sure some of you think it
would be awesome, others - I can sense the hesitation. There are some experts
who predict we are only a few years away from this. Scary thought, I know. Since day one of my internship, I have been
assigned the role of answering phones for registrations and enquiries for the
RAC automated vehicle trials, of which the company is managing.
Firstly, here’s a brief overview
about the “intellibus” and how it operates.
The bus is completely autonomous, meaning it operates itself. For me
personally, this is hard to get my head around. The 11 seater intellibus can
operate at a maximum speed of 45km/h, however, for trial purposes has been
operating at speeds of 20-25km/h.
In order to register for the trials, individuals can either call
the company direct or register online. If they choose to register online, they
are asked a series of questions and must select and available timeslot or are
placed on a waitlist, due to immense interest. The events company uses a software called “events air” to keep track of all registered individuals contact and booking information, as well as to gather information for RAC such as demographics and feedback. All participants in the trials are sent both a
confirmation email at the time of registration and also an information email
the day before the trial providing them with all the essential details.
I was receiving calls regarding all things related to the trials, including; registrations, information about the concept, cancellations and confirmations. There would be days where the phone would be ringing off the hook. There was one day in particular, that myself and the director had to individually contact each participant to advise them that the trial had been cancelled. After walking out of this office that day and reflecting on the experience, I could see the importance of maintaining a database of all attendees and the importance of organisation and communication - something that have been drilled into us all and developed since day one of our PR degree.
1 comment:
Hi!
I really enjoyed reading your blog post on the Intellibus! It was only last week that I was in South Perth and saw the Intellibus signage as well as it's shipping crate home. Whilst it's a really cool concept, it's still quite hard to get my head around the idea of a vehicle driving itself!
I think your blog post highlighted the issues that PR practitioners are going to have to face in the future - advancements in all industries. As you mentioned, there was an incredible amount of interest displayed in taking part in the trial which is fantastic but I'm sure there was also a lot of skeptics and publics who were not comfortable with the Intellibus operating in their neighbourhood. Advancements in all industries will really put pressure on PR professionals in the future to combat both the positive and negative reactions to different technologies. Hopefully every other advancement is met with as much positivity as yours was!
Good luck with the remainder of your internship.
- Jess
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