Obtain the data you need to make the most informed decisions by accessing our extensive portfolio of information, analytics, and expertise. Sign in to the product or service center of your choice.
UK government inaugurates testing facility for autonomous vehicles
05 September 2019IHS Markit Automotive Expert
(Excerpt)
The UK government has inaugurated Autonomous Village, a testing
facility for self-driving cars in Bedfordshire, and has launched a
new safety regime, CAV Pass. Autonomous Village is a 40-mile
facility for testing self-driving cars in Bedfordshire (United
Kingdom), reports The Telegraph. The new facility is one
of six sites across the country co-ordinated by automated vehicle
company Zenzic and has received a GBP6.9-million (USD8.5-million)
grant from the UK government. This facility will be helpful for
companies to test software, sensors, data collection, and security
systems for self-driving cars. On the inauguration of the facility,
the government launched a new safety regime, CAV Pass, to ensure
self-driving vehicles are subject to 'digital MOTs', testing their
cyber-security and artificial intelligence systems. UK Future of
Transport Minister George Freeman said, "Self-driving vehicles can
offer significant rewards for the UK's economy, road safety and
accessibility. We are determined to lead in the testing and
development of safe autonomous transport. This is new terrain, and
with our national expertise the UK is well-placed to blaze the
trail globally by developing a global benchmark for assuring the
safety and security of this exciting technology."
Significance: The government grant of GBP6.9
million to set up the facility comes from a GBP51-million
government fund aimed at developing testing facilities for
driverless vehicles across the country. A day before the facility's
inauguration, Zenzic launched the UK Connected and Automated
Mobility Roadmap (CAM) to 2030, which the company claims as world's
first self-driving roadmap. The roadmap depicts connections,
cross-sector dependencies, and associations required to deploy
autonomous vehicles (AVs) on public roads in the UK by 2030. In
February, the UK government announced that it is working to support
advanced trials of AVs, after they have passed rigorous safety
assessments, and has updated its code of practice to add updates on
automated vehicle trialling . The UK government plans to be the
leader in the field of self-driving vehicles and expects to launch
the first fully driverless cars on public roads by 2021. This was
bolstered by the statement of former chancellor of the exchequer
Philip Hammond to the BBC that the objective is to have "fully
driverless cars" without a safety attendant on board by 2021. The
government has also funded Oxbotica to support a GBP13-million
project that will program fleets of AVs to run between London and
Oxford.
Read more articles like this one. Get a free trial to AutoIntelligence Daily
The above article is from AutoIntelligence Daily by IHS Markit. Every working day, AutoIntelligence Daily provides about 30 articles focused on automotive news, events and trends. Get a free trial.