Technicians are investigating the programming of East Tyrone’s first driverless bus after it stopped at a pub two minutes into its maiden test drive from Washingbay to the Tamnamore car park, sending a text message to the control centre that just said ‘pints’.

The bus, which was to ferry 25 passengers on a test drive from Derrylaughan GAA to the Tamnamore Park and Ride near the M1, a 3.6-mile journey, stopped half a mile into the drive, parking just outside Falls Bar and opening its doors.

The expert behind the initiative, Killyman engineer Oscar McVeigh, was at a loss to explain the detour:

“To be honest, I didn’t even know the bus could send us messages. To receive ‘pints’ as a text message from the driverless bus was exciting but also terrifying. We’ll go again tomorrow and maybe try a different route that has no pub. I wasn’t aware that AI could be fond of the drink.”

Technicians are also investigating the possibility that the pub’s owner had a cousin involved in programming the vehicle’s brain.