Skip to main content

‘Only 20% of people’ would put their child inside an AV, says Fujitsu

Only 20% of people would be prepared to put their child inside an autonomous vehicle (AV), according to research from Fujitsu. People are more anxious about adopting digital services in travel than they are in other areas of their lives, according to Russell Goodenough, the company’s managing director of business and transport. Just 40% of people would put their trust in an AV - and the transport sector is falling behind in the race to digitisation, the company says. Speaking at a media forum in Lo
July 24, 2018 Read time: 3 mins
Only 20% of people would be prepared to put their child inside an autonomous vehicle (AV), according to research from 5163 Fujitsu.


People are more anxious about adopting digital services in travel than they are in other areas of their lives, according to Russell Goodenough, the company’s managing director of business and transport.

Just 40% of people would put their trust in an AV - and the transport sector is falling behind in the race to digitisation, the company says.

Speaking at a media forum in London, UK, Goodenough said there is a positive correlation between satisfaction of digital services and adoption rates within the financial services and retail sectors.

“The people working in our businesses aren’t immediately reaching to the same sorts of digital tools that people in other industries do,” he explained.

However, he believes the transport sector could learn from those industries and deliver digitisation less riskily – but he acknowledges there are challenges posed by rapidly-changing business models. “We are deeply exposed to disruption and new entrants coming into the market and taking existing revenue streams.”

The Fujitsu forum included speakers from 1466 Transport for London (TfL), Heathrow Airport and Hack Partners, who revealed how digital co-creation is helping them solve issues and shape journeys of the future.

Simon Reed, head of technology and data for surface transport at TfL, says the company is facing challenges through operating without government subsidies and dealing with passenger expectations to have real-time information.

“There’s a natural expectation that we are going to provide a more seamless service and that’s why we are looking at digital and co-operative ways of doing things.”

David Elliot, IT programme lead for airport operational systems at Heathrow airport, says the organisation does not move quickly and recognises the “sheer level” of collaboration necessary to turn data into information as a key challenge.

River Tamoor Baig, founder of Hack Partners, explains how the company’s hackathon events bring innovators outside of the transport sector to solve try and solve these problems. The team is presented with challenges and data sets and has 48 hours to come up with a solution to be presented to the industry.

Reed says TfL worked with insurance professionals and lawyers in a similar way to address issues surrounding where in London AVs could run and what this means for the insurance industry.

Tamoor Baig says a good first step is to open up data and make it more accessible.

“But a second step may be, your data being utilised by someone else in your ecosystem to add value back to your customers and their own customers,” he adds.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • SWARCO launches MyCity 1.0
    April 21, 2021
    New Mobility Management Platform for smarter, greener cities  
  • Curiosity Lab enters partnership on AV research
    September 12, 2019
    A US transport research organisation has partnered with the Georgia Institute of Technology and Delta Airlines to advance autonomous vehicle (AV) and infrastructure research. Curiosity Lab at Peachtree Corners is a 5G-enabled autonomous vehicle (AV) test bed with a 1.5 mile AV track. The deal will provide Georgia Tech researchers with access to Curiosity Lab’s test track and laboratory. The lab features dedicated fibre, smart poles and a network operations centre for researchers to track data from connecte
  • Itron announces winners of inaugural smart city challenge
    June 20, 2019
    Itron has chosen Instrumentation Technologies (I-Tech) and Noesis.Network as winners of its inaugural smart city challenge. The companies won the awards for designing Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for London and Glasgow, after developing solutions using Itron’s developer tools and IoT networks in both UK cities. In London, I-Tech designed a two-step solution to improve safety around the River Thames by allowing the city to monitor lifebelts and pinpoint the locations of a person in need of rescue su
  • Cubic pushes greater role of public transit authorities in driving MaaS
    March 26, 2018
    Public transit agencies must start playing a central role in shaping the direction of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) solutions, driving the implementation effort and acting as coordinators of future endeavours, according to Cubic Transportation Systems' (CTS’) report presented in Washington DC. The document, authored by the company's president Matt Cole, aims to help clients, partners and the transit industry revisit their assumptions about MaaS and encourage an open discussion about public transit as the bac