Autonomous vehicle developers ‘must counter terrorist potential’

Vehicle developers will have to introduce measures to counter the potential use of autonomous vehicle by terrorists, according to Iain Forbes, head of the UK Government’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles. Replying to a question from ITS International during a panel session at the Driverless Technology Conference in London, Forbes said: “Security questions will be an important part of the debate about autonomous vehicles. I think that it would be amiss of any government to enable something tha
December 1, 2015 Read time: 2 mins
Vehicle developers will have to introduce measures to counter the potential use of autonomous vehicle by terrorists, according to Iain Forbes, head of the UK Government’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles.

Replying to a question from 1846 ITS International during a panel session at the Driverless Technology Conference in London, Forbes said: “Security questions will be an important part of the debate about autonomous vehicles. I think that it would be amiss of any government to enable something that might introduce new risks to society.”

Speaking so soon after the attacks in Paris he said the question was very relevant: “It is something that will have to be resolved.” However he added that he did not think it was an insurmountable problem: “We identify potential risks and find ways to deal with them.”

Joost Vantomme from FEBiAC (which represents the Belgian car industry) observed that the question applied equally to drones: “The need for regulation of drones is a topic of discussion in the European Commission and European Parliament,” he said.

Location Based Systems

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Why New York MTA needs $12bn – now!
    September 23, 2020
    Memo to US government: Public transit has been put under severe strain by Covid-19 – and New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority is sounding the alarm
    Read More
  • Battery bottleneck: EV roll-out at risk
    June 17, 2019
    In order for the take-up of electric vehicles – a key part of the future mobility mix - to grow, we need batteries. And that might prove tricky, reports Graham Anderson Industry and commodities experts fear that the growth in electric vehicles (EVs) could be much slower than predicted due to bottlenecks in global battery market supply chains. “People seem to think that the switch from the internal combustion engine to electric vehicles just means you plug your car in rather than fill it with petrol,” a
    Read More
  • Google ready to spin off self-driving car business
    October 28, 2016
    Google is ready to ‘graduate’ its self-driving car business into a stand-alone operation, according to Forbes. Speaking at the Nikkei Innovation Forum in Palo Alto this week, Google CEO John Krafcik, said, “Around a year ago we announced this new Alphabet structure and the ‘bet’ of Alphabet is sort of shorthand for these new entities that are forming within this new corporate structure. So this self driving car project is on its way to what we call a graduating project.” The announcement follows Googl
    Read More
  • MaaS Market London tackles transport firms’ big question
    February 6, 2019
    Will Mobility as a Service (MaaS) destroy public transport as we know it? That’s the question representatives from the taxi, bus, rail and multi-modal sectors will consider in ‘The role of vertical transport providers’, the opening session of the 2019 MaaS Market Conference (London, 20-21 March). Amid growing evidence of traditional transport operators losing out to the new mobility providers, particularly in urban areas, the panel session will debate the potential and actual benefits and pitfalls of par
    Read More

Highlighted Content