Tag: #SelfDriving

Following a series of industry workshops and an open call for evidence, the Self-Driving All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) has published a well-informed policy paper on the economic, environmental and safety benefits of self-driving vehicles (SDVs).

In the foreword, chairman Ben Everitt MP explains that Starship delivery robots have become commonplace in the streets of his constituency, Milton Keynes, with the City Council recently securing £2m in Government funding for a state-of-the-art self-driving shuttle service.

“There has never been a more important time to be championing this exciting and growing industry,” he said. “This is why the APPG for Self-Driving Vehicles launched a consultation on the economic, environmental, and safety benefits. Through the consultation we collected evidence from academics, insurance experts, and legal voices working in the sector.

“What it has highlighted in particular for me is that self-driving vehicles represent a huge investment opportunity for the UK. If the Government introduces self-driving vehicle legislation, investor confidence in British businesses would be strengthened.

“Beyond the benefits to our economy, SDVs could also make our roads safer, reconnect people and communities who find it hard to travel currently, and help us to reach Net Zero.”

Self-driving recommendations

The paper went on to make eight key recommendations and, pleasingly, the top one was met within days of it being published – a call for legislation to legalise the commercial deployment of SDVs in the UK in this year’s King’s Speech. Tick!

Further recommendations included:

• Alternative legislative pathways for advanced driverless trials.
• A sector-specific approach to AI regulation.
• R&D into smart technology to optimise SDV road use for reduced emissions and increased safety.
• Dialogue to ensure the benefits are understood and harnessed by the rail, maritime and aviation sectors.
• Clarity for insurers and developers to create robust safety protocols and liability frameworks.
• Balanced and proportionate safety controls for deployment.
• The Government working with industry to champion self-driving and boost public awareness.

Economic benefits

On the economic impact, the paper said: “The UK has a unique opportunity for leadership in an industry that could be worth £750 billion globally by 2035. The UK is already home to several innovative SDV companies that are trialling their vehicles on UK roads, and the Government’s analysis of the sector showed that it could potentially generate £42 billion and 38,000 jobs for the UK economy by 2035. Research by the SMMT suggest the CAM sector as a whole could be worth £66 billion by 2040.  But the UK risks falling behind other countries and losing this potential crown jewel sector by moving too slowly to implement the legislative proposals made by the Law Commission in 2022.

“During the consultation, contributors pointed out that many studies have shown that there is an opportunity to incorporate self-driving technology into mass transit systems, which has the potential to deliver benefits to the public more cheaply than upgrading the current system. Industry called for more to be done to bring local authorities on board and think about potential applications for self-driving technology for local transport services.”

Environmental benefits

On the environmental impact, it said: “Self-driving vehicles can help to eliminate some of the most emissions-intensive driving-related behaviours. According to the Climate Change Committee, surface transport accounts for 22% of UK greenhouse gas emissions – the largest individual share of any sector. There was a consensus from contributors that SDVs have an important role to play in the transition to Net Zero.

“Contributors pointed out that more was needed to improve the connectivity of transport infrastructure in order to achieve the full benefits of SDVs on UK roads. A recent EU study found that connected vehicles on city roads could reduce emissions by 18% and a UK study reported that traffic light improvement could also reduce emissions by 17%.”

Safety benefits

Finally, on the safety impact, it said: “The four leading causes of transport accidents are: driver error; reckless behaviour; disobeying traffic laws; and driver impairment. Self-driving vehicles promise to be safer than human drivers, reducing the number of preventable tragedies on UK roads. This factor was also considered in the Transport Select Committee’s recent report, with several witnesses stressing the potential safety benefits presented by SDVs, and highlighting the Government’s safety ambition for this technology.

“Contributors highlighted research from the insurance industry that SDVs could save the NHS £2.3 billion annually in medical and ambulance costs by eliminating the 85% of accidents where human error is a contributory factor. Shared SDV services might also contribute to lowering the cost of patient transport services and reducing the cost impact of non-attendance at appointments.”

The paper concluded with some brief thoughts on public perception, including: “Earlier this year, the Department for Transport conducted a survey into the public perceptions. Overall, the survey found that participants were overwhelmingly positive towards the development of SDVs, particularly as a form of shared transport, and noted benefits such as safety gains.”

Supported by AXA, Burges Salmon, Wayve and WSP, the full policy paper is available on the Self-Driving APPG website.

In very welcome news, “self-driving vehicles” received a prominent mention in the King’s Speech at the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday 7 November 2023.

This had been widely expected, but then it had been in the Queen’s Speech of 2022, when it surprisingly failed to materialise.

On Sunday, The Guardian noted that “tech bosses hope driverless car laws will clear the road for UK software industry”, while The Times went over the top at just past midnight, declaring “Driverless buses and delivery vehicles to get green light”.

“My Lords and members of the House of Commons, it is mindful of the legacy of service and devotion to this country set by My beloved Mother, The late Queen, that I deliver this, the first King’s Speech in over 70 years,” King Charles began.

For our sector, the much anticipated key line came halfway through: “My Ministers will introduce new legal frameworks to support the safe commercial development of emerging industries, such as self-driving vehicles, introduce new competition rules for digital markets, and encourage innovation in technologies such as machine learning.”

Following the Speech, The Independent was quick to confirm a “Bill to enable self-driving cars to be used on Britain’s roads… The Government says its Automated Vehicles Bill will provide the sector with the certainty and confidence it needs to develop the technology.”

Self-driving industry reaction

So there we have it, the UK has taken an historic step towards legal self-driving. Early industry reaction included…

AXA’s Tara Foley: “AXA welcomes the Government’s commitment to support this exciting technological advance that offers multiple benefits for the UK economy, road safety and green jobs.

“As a large motor insurer, we have long been calling for this legislation to improve road safety. Introducing a regulatory framework for self-driving has huge potential to save lives.

“Research shows that 88% of road collisions involve an element of human error which would be eliminated with self-driving vehicles.

“There are also benefits for the wider economy. It’s estimated that the self-driving industry will be worth £42 billion and create up to 50,000 highly skilled jobs by 2035, and a legislative framework opens up opportunities for businesses to capitalise on this. For insurers, it also provides crucial clarity for establishing liability.”

Wayve co-founder, Alex Kendall: “Today’s announcement that the Government will bring forward legislation for self-driving signals to the global self-driving industry that the UK Government is committed to fostering innovation for the future of transport.

“By setting out a clear path to commercialisation, new primary legislation for self-driving vehicles gives us the confidence to continue investing in R&D and growing our talent base here in the UK.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the Government to cement the UK’s role as a global centre of excellence for self-driving technology that will make our roads safer and unlock new growth.”

Brian Wong and Lucy Pegler, of law firm Burges Salmon, provide more background here including: “The first King’s Speech in 70 years has reaffirmed the Government’s intention to introduce legislation underpinning a new legal framework for self-driving vehicles… reform has been a long-time coming and, certainly from industry’s point of view, much-needed. 

“Much of the thinking, debate and groundwork has already been undertaken for this bill and, in the final session before the UK’s next General Election, that may be an all-important factor in circumstances where there is expected to be many competing calls for effective use of limited parliamentary time.”

Professor Paul Newman CBE, Co-founder of Oxa, said: “Building a regulatory framework that simultaneously encourages innovation alongside appropriate safety oversight and transparency will allow the public to build trust in these complex AI driven self-driving systems, and that is no small feat. Delivery of the AV Bill has taken a vast amount of smart thinking from agencies across the UK, including DfT, CCAV (Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles), the VCA, BSI, the Law Commission and Ministers and business leaders, founders and technologists like myself.

“The Bill will lead to new laws and a comprehensive regulatory framework creating a new class of driver (the first in 100 years) delivering clear partitioning of responsibilities and accountabilities for all the actors that must come together to enable self-driving vehicles at scale… If the Bill does its job, which I think it will, the UK will be ahead of the game with legal frameworks that aid development and, importantly, are not a retrofit solution.”

Lisa Johnson, of Starship Technologies, said:  “What the Autonomous Vehicle Bill means for companies like Starship we don’t know yet. Hugely positive that there is going to be legislation in this space, but, as we say a lot, it needs to cover the whole sector not just large, road-based vehicles. There are opportunities to support innovation and investment in last-mile that shouldn’t be missed.”

Philippe Colpron, Head of ZF Aftermarket, said: “For the UK is to fulfil its aspirations of becoming a tech powerhouse, it is imperative that emerging technologies are embraced, one of these being autonomous mobility. Though the ambition of having a widespread adoption is exciting, it’s vital to acknowledge that the transition to autonomous mobility won’t occur overnight as it will require, beyond technology readiness, a full eco-system of services.

“One crucial challenge which we should ensure not to overlook is the importance of predictive and connected maintenance solutions for the autonomous vehicles. While they promise advancements in safety, efficiency and convenience, their success is intricately linked to diligent and preventive maintenance solutions. There are currently over 42,000 repair and maintenance businesses across the UK and we must ensure to bring them along, for example through training and workshop technology, so they can continue servicing the vehicles of today and tomorrow.”

Dr Nick Reed, of Reed Mobility, said: “I’m very pleased for all involved in getting the Automated Vehicles bill into the King’s speech today – but this is not an end point. This is a trigger for the further hard work needed to establish safety and trust in this technology. It will not be easy and will need resolute focus on the essential data needed to give assurance in safe, efficient, ethical operation. We must also co-create solutions that meet the needs, expectations and desires of the communities into which the technology is deployed, gaining their input and support for new services. I look forward to helping make this happen.”

More to follow…

The full speech can be read and seen here

Alongside the unveiling of the sporty Concept 20-23 EV, at Nissan Design Europe in London on 25 September, came the announcement that every new Nissan in Europe will be all-electric from now on. Less widely reported was an important update on the evolvAD self-driving project.

A press release confirmed that, in collaboration with consortium partners Connected Places Catapult, Humanising Autonomy, SBD Automotive and TRL, the CCAV-backed project will use 100% electric Nissan Leaf cars equipped with autonomous drive (AD) technology to study self-driving in urban residential and rural roads.

David Moss, Senior Vice President, Region Research & Development for Nissan AMIEO (Africa, Middle East, India, Europe, and Oceania), said: “We are extremely proud to be a part of the evolvAD project in the UK, working alongside some brilliant partners to test and trial our technology.

“Through Nissan Ambition 2030 we want to empower mobility for everyone, and autonomous drive technologies are critical to this effort as they offer huge benefits in terms of vehicle safety, environmental impact and accessibility.”

Self-driving at Nissan Technical Centre

Here, Robert Bateman, evolvAD Project Manager at Nissan Technical Centre Europe (NTCE), in Cranfield, explains more. “For background, I’ve been at Nissan for over a quarter of a century, and for the last 12-13 years I’ve been involved in research and advanced engineering projects,” he said. “That covers a wide variety of work, but specifically we represent Nissan in Europe.

“Since 2017, we’ve been working for a group in Japan on autonomous vehicles. The first project was HumanDrive, which mainly involved motorway driving. As part of this project, in November 2019, we did The Grand Drive, still the longest self-driving journey in the UK, around 230 miles from Cranfield to Sunderland.

“After that, we thought, right, we need to go into a city. So, from 2020-23, we did ServCity in Greenwich, using the Smart Mobility Living Lab, the UK government’s CAM testbed in London. That was a significant progression – driving on arterial roads, dealing with more roadside furniture and a lot more pedestrians.

“Another aspect was having infrastructure communicating with the car. For example, getting an input regarding a bus at a standstill around the next corner – our car changed lanes in readiness before anybody else on the road even knew it was there! The car can work autonomously but V2I gives it a competitive edge, a bit of local knowledge. That’s what we were looking for on both HumanDrive and ServCity – the car driving smoothly, like a human.

“Having done highway and city centre driving, the logical next step was the last miles – getting from a rural village onto a motorway or navigating a small urban side street to make a delivery. That’s the purpose of evolvAD, to bookend the first two projects.

Last-mile self-driving

“It involves residential streets, speed bumps, mini roundabouts, width restrictions and, most importantly, dealing with traffic coming in the opposite direction. One of the issues with autonomous vehicles is, because of their safe nature, they will wait. Two connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) coming towards each other is fine – they’ll communicate and give way seamlessly. That might not be the case with human driven cars, so how do you deal with that?

“Other more challenging scenarios are rural lanes with extreme cambers and blind bends. There’s a risk that an autonomous vehicle might drive too slowly, to the extent that it becomes a hazard by frustrating the human drivers. Our solution is for the car to behave like a safe local driver, that’s the aim. When we send people out in our autonomous test cars we say ‘Have an uneventful ride!’, because we want it to feel normal.

“We also test in the US and Japan, but there are features specific to the UK which are harder to handle than the wide roads and bright sunshine of Silicon Valley. They don’t have things like unsynchronized pedestrian crossings. Our colleagues were initially quite shocked when they saw pedestrians dashing out in front of the car, not even at a crossing – people just don’t do that in Yokohama. Nissan realised the UK was the best place to test.

“evolvAD will be a 21-month project, running to March 2025, with the country road work conducted at the CAM testbed at Millbrook. It’s very impressive, the sort of speeds and Gs the vehicle can safely reach there now. It’s not one autonomous vehicle system, it’s multiple systems, and some of these technologies will mature more quickly than others.

Self-driving growth

“My team has grown considerably over the last six years. Before HumanDrive, in 2017, we had one full-time engineer. Now, we’ve got a group of research engineers, technicians and highly qualified test drivers. We’re responsible for procuring the hardware, developing the software, looking at costs and maintaining the vehicles. It also involves bringing through the next generation of engineers and technicians.

“As well as going through Nissan’s usual rigorous protocols, all our test drivers receive additional training for the specific requirements of autonomous vehicles, like holding their hands off the wheel. One of our technicians also trained as a test driver and is now a fully qualified engineer working with our ADAS team.

“Along with our project partners, evolvAD will support the development of the UK CAV supply base. It will further enhance our autonomous drive technology, a key pillar of the Nissan Ambition 2030 vision to create a cleaner, safer and more inclusive world.”

Cars of the Future proudly presents the inaugural Self-driving Industry Awards…

Celebrating excellence in connected and automated mobility, in the UK and internationally. #sdia23

The immediate suspension of Cruise’s testing permit in California has sent shockwaves through the global self-driving industry, with the freewheeling US approach to roll-out under more scrutiny than at any time since the Uber ATG moment in 2018.

The full 24 October 2023 statement by The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) read: “Public safety remains the California DMV’s top priority, and the department’s autonomous vehicle regulations provide a framework to facilitate the safe testing and deployment of this technology on California public roads. When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or revoke permits. There is no set time for a suspension.

“The California DMV today notified Cruise that the department is suspending Cruise’s autonomous vehicle deployment and driverless testing permits, effective immediately. The DMV has provided Cruise with the steps needed to apply to reinstate its suspended permits, which the DMV will not approve until the company has fulfilled the requirements to the department’s satisfaction. This decision does not impact the company’s permit for testing with a safety driver.”

Self-driving issues

It went on to highlight four serious issues under consideration:

1. Based upon the performance of the vehicles, the Department determines the manufacturer’s vehicles are not safe for the public’s operation.
2. The manufacturer has misrepresented any information related to safety of the autonomous technology of its vehicles.
3. Any act or omission of the manufacturer or one of its agents, employees, contractors, or designees which the department finds makes the conduct of autonomous vehicle testing on public roads by the manufacturer an unreasonable risk to the public.
4. The department shall immediately suspend or revoke the Manufacturer’s Testing Permit or a Manufacturer’s Testing Permit – Driverless Vehicles if a manufacturer is engaging in a practice in such a manner that immediate suspension is required for the safety of persons on a public road.

Self-driving suspension

The suspension comes just weeks after a Cruise car struck a pedestrian following a hit-and-run by a human-driven vehicle – an incident the DMV was urgently investigating.

Cruise responded: “We will be pausing operations of our driverless AVs in San Francisco. Ultimately, we develop and deploy autonomous vehicles in an effort to save lives. Our teams are currently doing an analysis to identify potential enhancements to the AV’s response to this kind of extremely rare event.”

Cruise is owned by General Motors (GM), with CEO Mary Barra predicting earlier this year that it “could generate $50 billion a year in annual revenue by 2030”.

However, the California roll-out has many vocal critics, including the Transport Workers Union of America (TWU).

“Despite the propaganda pushed by tech executives, Cruise has shown the world that robots are incapable of even coming close to achieving the high standards human operators meet each and every day,” said TWU President, John Samuelsen.

It is hard to overstate how serious this is for self-driving in the US. Two weeks ago, leading industry voices were fighting Cruise’s corner.  

For instance, Alex Roy, founder of Johnson & Roy, which advises “global clients whose mission is to improve the safety, experience, and sustainability of technology and mobility in service of humanity”, was highly critical of the NY Post headline “Self-driving car mows down woman, leaving her trapped underneath vehicle”. Yesterday, he said on Linkedin: “I might have been wrong in coming to Cruise’s defense”.

We recently interviewed AV safety expert Philip Koopman about the contrasting UK and US approaches to roll-out. We’ll bring you that very soon.

For now, Koopman had this to say on Linkedin: “I am becoming convinced that this is Cruise’s “Uber ATG moment”. In 2018 an Uber ATG test vehicle killed a pedestrian, due in large part due to an inadequate safety culture. That event triggered a profound safety culture transformation within the company, allowing them to continue development downstream. That legacy lives on in Aurora, the company that acquired much of the team. The question is whether Cruise will undergo a similar transformation, or will double down on a non-viable scale-at-any-cost strategy. So far, publicly observable signs are not promising.”

Celebrating excellence in connected and automated mobility, in the UK and internationally, entries for the inaugural Self-driving Industry Awards close at 5pm UK-time on Monday 23 October.

Presented by Cars of the Future, the Self-driving Industry Awards 2023 cover all aspects of this exciting and fast-growing ecosystem.

From impressive engineering and design developments to essential work in areas such as insurance and public trust, peer recognition plays an important part, with all entrants nominating a self-driving Person of the Year and Vehicle of the Year.

A Self-driving Industry Awards spokesperson said: “If you’ve made a telling contribution to self-driving – launched the world’s best robotaxi or last-mile delivery robot, made a technological leap, or provided incredible thought leadership – then you should be entering these awards.”

For further info, including a full list of the award categories, please visit Carsofthefuture.co.uk/awards/ #SDIA23

A highlight of this week’s Gitex tech conference in Dubai was the unveiling of the 185mph Dallara Super Formula SF23 self-driving car race, to be used in the new Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL).

10 rival teams with cars from the legendary Italian manufacturer will take to the grid for the first time on 28 April at the Yas Marina Circuit, competing for a tasty £1.85m prize pot.

The eye-catching launch video promised: “To push the boundaries of what is possible. To compete on speed, on reaction, on agility. Not just to master the perfect lap, but to redefine it.”

A2RL says it has brought together teams of scientists, coders and developers from around the world with the aim of reshaping the future of mobility through extreme sports – to stress-test autonomous vehicles on the racetrack for safety on our roads.

Self-driving racing

As Tom McCarthy, Executive Director of Aspire, the organisation behind the project, explains in the video interview below: “We believe that if consumers gain confidence then we will see cutting-edge research, such as that being undertaken here in Abu Dhabi, taking its place in production cars sooner rather than later.”

This isn’t the first attempt to get a self-driving race series off the ground. In May last year, we reported on the demise of Roborace, established way back in 2015.

Around the same time, we reported on AB Dynamics’ 130mph self-driving crash test at the Talladega Superspeedway and Indy Autonomous Challenge winner PoliMOVE setting a new world speed record for a self-driving vehicle, 192.2mph at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

As Sir Stirling Moss told me many years ago [how’s that for a name drop?!], autosport has always played a vital role in developing new technologies.

A2RL plan to go off-road too, with self-driving dune buggy and drone races, all intended to advance autonomy. We at Cars of the Future will definitely be watching.

For further info visit A2RL.io

On 9 October, as the fallout from the cancellation of HS2 continued, The Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) quietly announced the recipients of £1.3m in joint government and industry funding “to study the feasibility of self-driving mass transit solutions across the UK”.

The following six projects – backed via CCAV’s Commercialising Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) programme – will explore how self-driving technology can be cheaper, emit less carbon, and increase transport safety and security…

UK self-driving projects

Autonomous Healthlink, in Northumberland, will study the feasibility of a zero emission self-driving system on a segregated route between Seaton Delaval Station and the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital in Cramlington. The lead partner is Milestone Transport Planning Ltd, with Dromos Mobility Ltd, Pegasus Planning Group Ltd and Newcastle University. Grant: £155,911.

Blythe Rural Automated Vehicle Operations, in the West Midlands, will study the feasibility of a shuttle service within the Midlands Future Mobility initiative, connecting Blythe Valley Business Park to the UK Central Hub (Arden Cross HS2 interchange, Birmingham International Airport and Railway station). The lead partner is Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, with Aurrigo, Syselek (UK) Ltd, Liftango Ltd, ZF Services UK Ltd, West Midlands Combined Authority, National Highways and WMG. Grant: £197,664.

Commercialising Connected and Automated Vehicle Services in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, will study the commercial potential of a self-driving vehicle linking Inverness College University of the Highlands and Islands Campus to key locations in Inverness and connect ferry passengers to public transport at Uig Pier on the Isle of Skye. The lead partner is University of Glasgow, with Aurrigo, The Highlands and Islands Transport Partnership, Darwin Innovation Group Ltd and Highland Country Buses Ltd. Grant: £160,443.

Dromos Connected and Automated System, in Bolton, will study the feasibility of an on-demand, 24/7 self-driving system running on a decommissioned railway corridor connecting the Bolton Transport Interchange to the Royal Bolton Hospital. It will consider the potential to expand and integrate the service through infrastructure and mobility projects. The lead partner is Dromos Mobility Ltd, with Transport for Greater Manchester Ltd and Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council. Grant: £199,760.

HertsLynx Connected and Automated Mobility On-Demand, in Hertfordshire, will study a self-driving service using on-demand responsive transport technology serving passengers in the Maylands Business Park region. In particular, the routes will connect Maylands to Harpenden Station and St Albans. The lead partner is Sustainicity Ltd, with Siemens Mobility, University of Hertfordshire and Hertfordshire County Council. Grant: £115,748.

Integrated Mixed Traffic Mobility for Hertfordshire Essex Rapid Transit, also in Hertfordshire, extends an existing study examining the feasibility of “Dedicated Driverless Spaces” for articulated buses running on segregated routes and public roads. Notably, the route will link Watford and St Albans town centres. The lead partner is City Science Corporation Ltd, with StreetDrone, Hertfordshire County Council and England’s Economic Heartland. Grant: £134,984.

With the Prime Minister helpfully clarifying that a list of projects potentially in line for some of the HS2 cash was purely “illustrative”, perhaps some of these exciting self-driving projects will actually happen… and deliver incredible value for money.

Celebrating excellence in automated mobility, in the UK and internationally, entries are open now for the inaugural Self-driving Industry Awards.

Presented by Cars of the Future, the Self-driving Industry Awards 2023 cover all aspects of this exciting and fast-growing ecosystem.

From impressive engineering and design developments, to essential work in areas such as insurance and public trust, peer recognition plays an important part, with all entrants nominating a self-driving Person of the Year and Vehicle of the Year.

A Self-driving Industry Awards spokesperson said: “If you’ve made a telling contribution to self-driving – launched the world’s best robotaxi or last-mile delivery robot, made a technological leap, or provided incredible thought leadership – then you should be entering these awards.”

The deadline for entries is now 5pm UK-time on Monday 23 October 2023, with all shortlisted candidates receiving an invitation to the Awards ceremony (in the UK on Friday 17 November).

For further info, including a full list of the award categories, please visit Carsofthefuture.co.uk/awards/ #SDIA23