Driverless vehicles could be on United Kingdom's roads by 2025.
The UK government has announced that it plans to roll out self-driving vehicles by 2025. It reportedly prepares a £100 million ($119m) package to fund research on safety developments, according to ZD Net.
The plan of the government could mean that there would be cars with "self-driving features" on the roads in the next year. Meanwhile, the government is setting a new legislation to ensure the safety of driverless vehicles once it has a wider rollout in 2025.
UK Government Funds Safety Research of Self-Driving Vehicles
According to the UK government, it wanted to "take advantage of the emerging market for autonomous vehicles." The said industry could potentially create around 38,000 new jobs.
"We want the UK to be at the forefront of developing and using this fantastic technology," Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said.
Shapps said UK is investing millions in significant research into safety. The government is also setting the legislation to make sure the country will have the full benefits of the self-driving vehicles technology.
By next year, some vehicles with self-driving features could be driven on large roads. But the recent announcement aims for a much wider rollout, which will include public transport and delivery vehicles, according to Reuters.
According to the Department of Transport's announcement, the UK government has started consulting about a "safety ambition" proposal requiring a self-driving vehicle to be "as safe as a competent and careful human driver," as per ZD Net.
The UK government said that the legislation would make manufacturers liable for the vehicle's actions when self-driving. This only means that when the vehicle is in control of driving, the human driver would not be responsible for driving-related incidents.
ZD Net reported that the government wanted to "fast-track new legislation" regarding insurance and liability. This would make the manufacturers liable for crashes when the vehicle is in self-driving mode.
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CDEI Says Public Might Reject Self-Driving Vehicles
Following UK government's announcement, the Center for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) issued a warning that there's a chance that the public will reject driverless vehicles "if they are not seen as safe enough," according to ZD Net.
CDEI shared the Responsible Innovation in Self-Driving Vehicles report, which says there's a long process ahead regarding the public's trust to self-driving vehicles and the rules associated with it.
In order for the public to consider autonomous vehicles as something similar to trains or aircraft, the public "could expect a 100x improvement in average safety over manually-driven vehicles," ZD Net reported.
According to CDEI, there is a need to clearly identify driverless cars for the public to know what "agents" they are "sharing the road with." Another issue is the technology may require changes in roads and road rules to meet the needs of driverless cars.
In order to gain the public's trust, there is a need to establish rules requiring technology makers to describe the conditions under which self-driving vehicles can operate, as per CDEI recommendations.
CDEI also suggested to consult people with disability to make sure that "regulations are inclusive."
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