The Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP) and key industry stakeholders are expressing concern over the UK Government’s plan to roll out self-driving vehicles by 2025.
The Government revealed new legislation to pave the way for introducing self-driving vehicles on UK roads within the next three years. It has allocated £100 million to deliver its autonomous ambitions for research to support safety developments and inform more detailed legislation.
That could include researching the performance of self-driving cars in poor weather conditions and how they interact with pedestrians, other vehicles and cyclists.
It says some vehicles, including cars, coaches and lorries, with self-driving features could be operating on motorways as soon as next year.
Ministers say the move will enable the UK to take full advantage of the emerging market of self-driving vehicles, which could create up to 38,000 jobs and could be worth an estimated £42 billion.
However, Paul Hollick, AFP chair, told Fleet News: “A lot of our members are struggling to see how regular vehicles and self-driving vehicles are going to operate at the same time on the roads together.
“What scares us is that we know from the total population of drivers within fleets, there will be some that cut corners. Some drivers will be confused about what this technology can – and can’t – do.
“If drivers think a vehicle is fully self-driving, when it’s not, that could land us in some hot water when it comes to duty of care.”
A particular passage from the Government’s recent announcement caused the most alarm for the AFP, stating that “self-driving vehicles could revolutionise public transport and passenger travel, especially for those who don’t drive”.
This paints a picture of vehicles on the road with no input from drivers and no expectation to take back the wheel.
That is one potential outcome with self-driving technology, but the pace of change is what most concerns fleet operators.
Matthew Avery, Thatcham director of research, made it clear that the Government announcement was a summary of all the work that had been done previously to pave the way for more self-driving technologies, but it doesn’t mean this technology will be widespread by 2025.
