Failure to do so will do “significant and lasting damage both to the UK’s self-driving vehicle industry and to this country’s reputation as a trailblazer.”
MPs warn that assumptions that SDVs will prove safer than human drivers, “is not a given.” Self-drive cars being widely used on UK roads could be “decades away” it says.The report questions the Government’s proposed “safety ambition” – that self-driving vehicles will be “expected to achieve an equivalent level of safety to that of a competent and careful human driver” – believing it is “too weak and too vague”. Ministers need to set a “clearer, more stretching threshold”, it says.
“All that hard work could be at risk if the Government doesn’t follow through and bring forward a Transport Bill.” “Widespread take-up of SDVs faces various hurdles, including public confidence in their safety, security and their potential to have knock-on impacts on other road users.