Lucky Jim – he’s not the only 10-year-old longing to get behind the wheel
Letting a 10-year-old drive a Range Rover may seem an unusual way to calm tantrums, but I can well believe it works.
This was the Easter Monday treat for James, Viscount Severn (son of Prince Edward), and according to witnesses he piloted the vehicle with aplomb from a booster seat.
On Sunday, the Viscount had been tearful while attending church, and I can only say that if he’s anything like my own 10-year-old son then a vast bribe would have been needed to get him to the Easter service in the first place. I can easily imagine myself saying, in desperation: “Yes, yes, I’ll let you drive the Focus. And then have a whirl with the chainsaw.”
I was always jealous of my cousin, who grew up on a farm and zoomed around in tractors and combine harvesters from a tender age, not to mention the school friend whose father afforded her the dizzying
freedom of steering their Volvo around empty car parks.
Driving is the ultimate form of liberation, so it’s no wonder young people crave to do it (once you have wheels, you can escape your parents).
The film Baby Driver is based on that conceit: the best getaway driver will be the one who’s barely out of his teens, because his reflexes will be those of the best gamer.
Perhaps Uber should give up on self-driving cars and instead turn to the cheapest and most eager task force on the planet: schoolchildren.