Should politicians be more enthusiastic about driverless cars?

Rhetoric around this new technology has been unusually level-headed. For once, that might be a bad idea

by Emran Mian / February 11, 2015 / Leave a comment

Business Secretary Vince Cable gets all hot and bothered about autonomous travel. © Rui Vieira/PA Archive/Press Association Images

Business Secretary Vince Cable literally cannot wait for autonomous travel. © Rui Vieira/PA Archive/Press Association Images

I’m very excited about driverless cars. They have the potential to change a lot of what we take for granted in our economy, whether that’s how post and parcels get to our homes or how we get from our homes to our offices and schools. But the technology will develop gradually, perhaps taking as much as 20 years before it starts to transform anything. What’s supposed to happen in the meantime though is that politicians get way ahead of the feasibility studies and make rhetorical claims that are fun to debunk. Disappointingly, they’re being much more level headed.

Today the Government launched “The Pathway to Driverless Cars,” a long, careful action plan for the next several years. There were some fanciful statements. Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, said that the UK has the opportunity to place itself as a world leader in what will become a £900bn industry. That figure is more or less a complete invention. We can nit-pick the title of the report too. Most of the vehicles it envisages have a driver—indeed, the driver bears liability for any accidents that occur rather than the machine. However, on the whole the plan is informed by a sophisticated understanding of the car industry, the challenges facing “autonomous vehicles,” and what government can do about them.

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Comments

terence patrick hewett
February 11, 2015 at 17:45
The major auto-makers are all too aware that transport systems and technologies are beginning to merge in the same way that TV, PC's, phones and allied technologies are beginning to merge. Driverless automobiles are already a reality; electric cars are already a reality; Formula E racing will advance the technology at a rate of knots using wireless battery charging, parallel capacitor technology and Aluminium-Air battery technology. Battery capacity is doubling every seven years (Phinergy is claiming 1200 miles for their Al-Air battery). The Mercedes F015, self-driving, Hydrogen Fuel-Cell powered, electric vehicle claims 685 miles per charge. The Detroit Electrics SP:01 electric car, based on the Lotus Elise platform, boasts a top speed of 155 mph: 0-60 mph in 3.7 seconds. Graphene-fuel-cell electricity generation offers similar range and refuelling times to petrol engines. Self-driving, self-charging electric vehicles which will pick you up before and after work are being developed (V-charge project; see note**). Connected car data (as part of connected data) is already a privacy versus terrorism/security issue.The merging of these sorts of technologies with train-transport is on the cards. Rail lines are no longer necessary to guide a vehicle to its destination and rail-removal replacement technology is 6-7 times less costly to construct and maintain (see ref. Transport-Watch Fact Sheet No. 7). Proto-systems such as Network Rail’s battery powered train; the Independently Powered Electric Multiple Unit (IPEMU) is already in operation and is typically 20% cheaper to run: and no need for under/overhead electrification.
1. terence patrick hewett
  February 11, 2015 at 17:51
  **Note: The V-project research team involves scientists from Oxford University, the Universities of Parma and Braunschweig, as well as Bosch and Volkswagen engineers. It uses low cost, near market ready, sensors that can be seamlessly integrated into the electric vehicles to allow them to drive autonomously even without constant access to the GPS signal in indoor garages.

Emran Mian

Policy and promises