Skip to main content

Zenzic identifies ‘golden threads’ to accelerate AV roll-out

A UK organisation has identified 500 ‘milestones’ to be passed in order to get connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs) on the road in numbers by 2030. Zenzic, which was set up by government and industry to coordinate a national platform for testing and developing C/AVs, has launched the UK Connected and Automated Mobility Roadmap to 2030. It identifies six ‘golden threads’ which highlight areas dependent on cross-industry collaboration to make self-driving services accessible to the public by the end of
September 12, 2019 Read time: 2 mins

A UK organisation has identified 500 ‘milestones’ to be passed in order to get connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs) on the road in numbers by 2030.

Zenzic, which was set up by government and industry to coordinate a national platform for testing and developing C/AVs, has launched the UK Connected and Automated Mobility %$Linker: 2 External <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><dictionary /> 0 0 0 link-external Roadmap false https://zenzic.io/roadmap/ false false%> to 2030.

It identifies six ‘golden threads’ which highlight areas dependent on cross-industry collaboration to make self-driving services accessible to the public by the end of the next decade.

Top of the list is cyber resilience, with Zenzic suggesting that one major goal must be “to focus on resilience in the event of a cyber failure or threat rather than trying to build an unbreakable system”.

Legislation and regulation, public acceptability, infrastructure and safety – including the sharing of safety critical data vehicle-to-vehicle – are among the other key areas it identifies. Many of these are inter-dependent, such as the clear link between AV safety and whether people are going to be confident about using them.

“Societal outcomes must be at the centre of our planning,” Zenzic says. “To date, a vehicle-centric focus has been adopted to progress self-driving technology.” Instead, the focus should be on “thinking today about how technology and services will benefit society at large in 2030”.

The document goes through what is required in four main sections - society and people, vehicles, infrastructure and services – and in particular highlights the role of cybersecurity, saying that the UK is “at the forefront” of this technology, on which “half of the roadmap” depends.

Collaboration is the key, the roadmap insists: “If all the activity in the roadmap was scheduled sequentially with no parallel efforts, it would take until 2079 for the UK to benefit from self-driving vehicles on the roads.”

To speed things up, there must be cooperation between industry, academia and government in the UK. The document suggests 2025 will mark the ‘tipping point’ when the UK “switches gears from trial and development of the technology to the scaling up of its deployment”.

Thereafter, “advances in vehicle licencing, vehicle insurance and a tidal change in desirability in the public eye” means that more commercial passenger services will emerge.

Related Content

  • June 28, 2019
    ASTC to operate e-bus service in India
    The Assam State Transport Corporation (ASTC) is to deploy 15 electric buses in Guwahati, a city in north-east India. The project is part of the Indian government’s FAME (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Electric Vehicles) scheme. A report by Business Standard says each bus will carry up to 31 passengers along a 6.4km route between the neighbourhoods of Kachari and Kamakhya. ASTC will operate a second service along a 38km route from the Inter State Bus Terminal while also running another service in
  • April 11, 2018
    La Sécurité Routière calls for self-driving cars to pass driving test
    French safety agency La Sécurité Routière has proposed that autonomous vehicles (AVs) should be made to pass a standard driving test before deployment on roads – according to a report by The European Traffic Police Network (TISPOL). Through the proposed test, AVs would be set to autopilot mode and be required to participate in a driving examination. Manoeuvres, different driving speeds, parking and navigation would all be under scrutiny.
  • October 31, 2019
    Intelematics: five takeaways from ITS World Congress in Singapore
    If you weren’t fortunate enough to be at the 26th ITS World Congress in Singapore – fear not! Stephen Owens of Intelematics takes you through his highlights of the show… Having recently topped the world’s first Smart City Index, Singapore was the ideal host city for this year’s ITS World Congress and provided a fantastic opportunity to bring the International ITS community to the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. Themed ‘smart mobility, empowering cities,’ it was an enjoyable week full of networking and lea
  • March 20, 2019
    Early bird registrations open for ITS Europe
    ITS Europe has opened early bird registrations for this year’s congress taking place in Eindhoven from the 3-6 June. Under the theme ‘Fulfilling ITS Promises’, the European Programme Committee is presenting seven topics. These include deploying new mobility services – from experiments to experience; a breath of fresh air; connected, cooperative and automated mobility; enhancing the efficiency of freight transport; enablers of digital infrastructure; transport network operations; and disruption start-ups &