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

  • May 11, 2015
    Future of transport to be revealed at UK summit on intelligent mobility
    The UK Government-backed Transport Systems Catapult has announced it will host a unique national summit on intelligent mobility and the future of transport next month. Featuring some of the most prominent thinkers in transport technology, research, and policy, the Imagine Festival will reveal how different sectors believe technology will transform global transport. According to David Reid, director of the Imagine Festival at the Catapult, the Imagine Festival has been created so leading minds from UK i
  • April 23, 2019
    EVgo utilises Autocharge technology in North America
    EVgo has deployed Autocharge technology in North America in a bid to allow customers to charge electric vehicles (EVs) without using apps or credit cards. Autocharge instantly recognises the EV and begins charging automatically, the company says. It is being launched on EVgo’s dedicated Maven Gig network – which offers rental cars for drivers who need a car to work for ride-share and delivery services. The technology will be rolled out across the US by the end of 2019 to all EVgo account holders with a
  • February 24, 2017
    ITS World Congress 2017 - call for papers deadline is 3 March
    There is still time to submit papers for the 24th ITS World Congress 2017 in Montreal, which is hosted by ITS America will host the event from, 29 October to 2 November, with the theme of ‘Integrated Mobility Driving Smart Cities’. If you have undertaken research on an advanced ITS topic, the World Congress International Program Committee invites you to present your findings in Montreal by submitting a paper through the submission website. (link submission.itsworldcongress2017.org.) The Call for Spe
  • March 21, 2018
    WPS wins Viggo airport parking deal at Lelystad
    WPS Parking Systems – a division of Dynniq – has inked an airport parking deal at Intertraffic. WPS and Viggo signed a co-operation agreement for parking services at Lelystad Airport, in Flevoland, central Netherlands. WPS will supply, install and maintain the parking management system at the airport, which is in the process of major change. Lelystand is evolving from an airport used only for general aviation (with predominantly small planes) to becoming an international holiday airfield. As a result of t