Autonomous Vehicles will not hit UK Roads for over a Decade, According to PA Consulting Group Report

LONDON, September 28, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

• Fully Autonomous vehicles (AVs) won't be common sight on UK roads for more than 10 years
• Regulation and legislation are big blockers for adoption of AVs
• UK risks falling behind Europen counterparts
  

PA Consulting Group's latest research on autonomous vehicles (AVs) suggests that despite much hype, they are more than 10 years away from being a common sight on UK roads.

PA's findings revealed that while progress is being made around technology, the rest of the ecosystem to support driverless cars - for example regulation, insurance, compliance, roads, users - still needs a lot of development.

The recent launch of the Government's MERIDIAN scheme progressed plans for CAV technology development in the UK. However PA research shows that regulation and legislation could be the biggest road blockers for the UK when accepting AVs onto the roads. Legislative requirements around the government's right to access data could affect the technology and a lack of usable technology will make connectivity and security impossible to achieve, slowing progress down. Conversely, insurance could be one of the quickest to achieve its full capability as it can develop the relevant policies. However, with insufficient regulations, the question of liability remains.

There are also key issues around public acceptability.

Elsewhere in Europe, PA's research suggests the Nordics are further ahead when it comes to technology and regulations.

Charlie Henderson, roads expert, PA Consulting Group says: "The Government's launch of the MERIDIAN scheme is a good first step. However, what we now need is a clear national strategy for the UK to know how it can make the most of AVs, or we face being left far behind our European neighbours."

"While manufacturers and the media talk enthusiastically about mass uptake of autonomous vehicles, the reality is that there are a number of significant technological, legislative and public confidence barriers."

"The key to speeding up progress is all about developing public confidence. For this to happen, we must: be clear about the social and economic benefits of driverless cars; define what skills the UK needs to realise those benefits; create a framework of regulations for driverless and conventional cars to co-exist; develop a cyber security framework to boost consumer confidence; and create incentives to include AV technologies in new or existing cars.

"The Nordic countries seem to be much more ahead than the UK; perhaps reflecting their more positive, enthusiastic cultural outlook. The challenge is to follow-through - getting working autonomous vehicles onto our roads and ensuring that the public are confident and safe to use them.  Some of the Nordic countries are small and that makes it easier to push ahead and coordinate the introduction of autonomous vehicles. Some of our roads regulation is dated, the legislative process can be slow and difficult in comparison with other countries and we have a large number of bodies involved in managing our roads network. Despite the ambitions of our politicians, we are a cautious country and this makes it hard to move at pace."

Progress and barriers in each capability 

    Capability            Consideration
    Technology            Research and testing is well underway, but there is more to be
                          done.
    Regulations and laws  Road regulations will need a complete overhaul.
    Public acceptance     Few people have had contact with AVs and the realities are
                          misunderstood.
    Compliance            Road worthiness needs a standard to test against.
    Roads                 Needs to be part of a national transport strategy.
    Insurance             It's uncertain where the liability will lie.

For further information or to download a copy of the report, visit http://www.paconsulting.com/autonomous-vehicles

Notes to editors 

To gather insight for the research, PA interviewed more than 100 experts involved in the UK's emerging driverless ecosystem between March 2016 and March 2017 in both the UK and the Nordics, including manufacturers, national and local government, the police, law firms, highways authorities, engineering organisations and motoring organisations.  

About PA Consulting Group  

An independent firm of over 2,600 people, we operate globally from offices across the Americas, Europe, the Nordics, the Gulf and Asia Pacific.

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