Richard Burden – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Transport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Richard Burden on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the suitability of the UK’s existing (a) road infrastructure and (b) skills in the workforce for the anticipated rise in the number of autonomous vehicles.

Andrew Jones

Autonomous vehicles could potentially have significant impacts on congestion, safety, and efficiency. The Government recognises that this is an important issue and needs to be better understood to properly inform long-term policy and investment decisions. For this reason, the Department for Transport is currently engaging with interested parties and conducting research and development to understand the specific requirements on the road infrastructure needed for the deployment of these technologies.

The Transport Systems Catapult is developing a report on current and future skills for the fast-growing Intelligent Mobility sector, which includes autonomous vehicles. This report will be complete in early summer.

This work is ongoing, and forms part of a much wider programme of research and development that the Government is supporting to examine the issues associated with these technologies.