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

  • February 18, 2014
    Vehicle and Road Automation website launched
    In order to promote the exchange of information and research on vehicle and road automation activities in Europe and beyond, the Vehicle and Road Automation (VRA) project has launched its website, together with other online tools to promote and expand the VRA community: The VRA wiki, www.vra-net.eu/wiki, is a user-edited shared resource for road vehicle automation activities around the world, containing details on around forty projects, with an abstract, contact point, website, sponsor, budget/funding an
  • September 6, 2017
    Annual IBTTA meeting to showcase award-winning toll systems
    With Atlanta becoming a test bed for new innovative transportation technologies and systems promoting enhanced mobility for drivers, the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) will focus on Georgia transportation during its International Mobility Connections 85th Annual Meeting & Exhibition, 10-12 September at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis in Atlanta. The meeting will bring together a top-level list of Georgia elected leaders
  • September 6, 2017
    Annual IBTTA meeting to showcase award-winning toll systems
    With Atlanta becoming a test bed for new innovative transportation technologies and systems promoting enhanced mobility for drivers, the International Bridge, Tunnel and Turnpike Association (IBTTA) will focus on Georgia transportation during its International Mobility Connections 85th Annual Meeting & Exhibition, 10-12 September at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis in Atlanta. The meeting will bring together a top-level list of Georgia elected leaders
  • March 21, 2018
    Security in the spotlight at Intelligent Security Systems
    Intelligent Security Systems, a new exhibitor at Intertraffic, is featuring three key innovations on its stand: an under-vehicle surveillance system, an all-in-one speed and ANPR camera and an IP based camera designed for licence plate recognition. SecurOS Flatmus, the under-vehicle surveillance system, comprises of a fish-eye camera mounted in a plate which in turn is set into the roadway (possibly in a speed hump) on the approach to a gated entrance. As the vehicle approaches, ANPR detects the vehicle