House of Lords driverless cars inquiry continues…

The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee will be continuing its inquiry into driverless vehicles next week. As previously reported by Post&Parcel, the Committee held its first session on driverless vehicles on Tuesday this week (1 November).

In next week’s session (on Tuesday, 8 November), the Committee will hear from representatives from three driverless car trials in Greenwich, Bristol and Milton Keynes.

The Committee will also examine the extent to which the UK will have to align itself with future international regulation for self-driving vehicles in areas such as cyber-security and data handling and will assess what progress has been made in European and global regulation of autonomous vehicles.

At 10:40am the Committee will hear from:

• Ms Claire Depré, Head of Sustainable & Intelligent Transport Unit, DG Transport and Mobility
• Dr Hermann Meyer, CEO, ERTICO –EUROPE
• Mike Hawes, Chief Executive, Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders

The Committee said that the questions that are likely to be asked of this panel could include:

• What can European organisations deliver that individual Member States or organisations cannot deliver on their own?
• What ways is it possible to avoid a situation where European countries have their own individual approach to cybersecurity and privacy requirements for highly autonomous vehicles?
• To what extent can the UK devise its own regulations and standards?

At 11:40am the Committee will hear from:

• Professor Nick Reed, Greenwich Automated Transport Environment
• John McCarthy, Bristol Driverless Cars Project
• Brian Matthews, Head of Transport Innovation, Milton Keynes Council

The Committee are likely to ask these panelists questions such as:

• Are the trials demonstrating a scientific or engineering process or testing elements of a system to be deployed?
• Has there been modelling or simulation of deployment on a network of a mixed fleet of non-highly and fully-automated vehicles?
• Can these new types of vehicle operate safely, efficiently and effectively on current infrastructure or will there have to be significant new infrastructure investment?

The evidence session will take place in Committee room 4A on Tuesday 8 November in the House of Lords. The session will be open to the public and will also be shown live on the website www.parliamentlive.tv. Sessions can also be viewed back at any time after the event and it is possible to clip parts of evidence sessions and share them on social media and third party websites.

MAIL & EXPRESS REVIEW

The Winter 2016 edition of the Mail & Express Review includes a special focus on autonomous driving technology. MER Editor Ian Taylor gives an overview of the subject and Professor Nick Reed, Academy Director at the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (and one of the panelists at next week’s House of Lords inquiry), shares his views on how automated vehicles could bring significant changes to the traditional operating models for the logistics, postal and delivery sectors.

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