House of Lords publishes autonomous vehicles report
The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee has set out recommendations on how the UK Government should proceed to “enable the UK to receive maximum economic benefit from autonomous vehicles”. The report – entitled Connected and Autonomous Vehicles: The future? – was published today (15 March) urged the government to “broaden its focus” so its work cuts across all sectors and does not focus so heavily on road vehicles.
In a statement sent to Post&Parcel today, the Committee said: “Early benefits are likely to come in sectors such as marine and agriculture therefore the Government must not allow media attention around driverless cars to cause it to lose sight of the many potential benefits that Connected and Autonomous Vehicle (CAV) technology can provide in areas outside the roads sector.”
The report has found that “there is no clear central coordination of strategy or information sharing across the different sectors” that could benefit CAV technology or robots. In order to plug this gap, the report advised that a Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) Leadership Council should be set up “as soon as possible”.
Importantly, the Committee said that the evidence presented at its recent hearings showed that the UK will need new road and communications infrastructure to realise the full benefits of CAV – and the Government together with Highways England and the Local Transport Authorities will have to “examine the potential for ensuring that new infrastructure can be future-proofed and will not need expensive retro-fitting”.
The Committee statement added: “The main social, behavioural and ethical questions relating to autonomous cars remain largely unanswered; such as whether they will reduce accidents caused by human error. The Committee heard evidence that autonomous vehicles have the potential to lower the number of road fatalities, but the eradication of human error will only be realised with full automation which could take decades.
“Furthermore, autonomous cars could have negative implications for drivers’ competence, making drivers complacent and overly reliant on technology. This is of particular concern in emergency situations, where a driver may react slowly to taking back control of a vehicle. The Government should give priority to commissioning and encouraging research studying behavioural questions and ensure it is an integral part of any trials it funds.
“The report notes that existing automotive manufacturers and new entrants will carry out their own research and development for fully automated cars, therefore, the Government should not need to invest heavily or take the lead in this area. However, the Committee conclude that the Government should continue to invest in the fundamental scientific research in robotics and information technology that underpins CAV.”
The Chairman of the Committee, the Earl of Selborne, commented: “Connected and Autonomous Vehicles is a fast-moving area of technology and the Government has much to do, alongside industry and other partners, to position the UK so that it can take full advantage of the opportunities that CAV offer in different sectors.
“In order to ensure that the UK can benefit from emerging CAV technologies the Government must continue to take action to close the engineering and digital skills gap. We welcome the focus on skills in the Government’s Industrial Strategy Green Paper and urge the Government to find innovative solutions to this problem.
“Long-term developments in CAV have the potential to bring about transformational change to society but these changes will only take place if society is willing to both pay for and to adapt its behaviour to fit the technology.”
