London, England — The UK has broken ground as the first government to allow full self-driving vehicles onto public motorways, with the first such vehicles expected to hit British roads at some point this year, Reuters reported.
The British Transport Ministry is currently working to establish regulations for these vehicles, which as it stands, are currently restricted to speeds of 60 km per hour or less. First on the agenda is addressing Automated Lane Keeping Systems (ALKS) and how to implement them into UK highway code.
Politicians in Britain are aiming for the nation to become a global leader in autonomous driving, projecting that 40 percent of the vehicles on British roads will have some amount of self-driving capabilities by the year 2035, thus creating 38,000 new skilled jobs in the process.
“The automotive industry welcomes this vital step to permit the use of automated vehicles on UK roads, which will put Britain in the vanguard of road safety and automotive technology,” said Mike Hawes, CEO of car industry lobby group the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, in a statement.
A concern among the UK’s auto insurance community however, is that the messaging around autonomous driving must be adjusted and presented to the public in a much more realistic way.
“Aside from the lack of technical capabilities, by calling ALKS automated our concern also is that the UK Government is contributing to the confusion and frequent misuse of assisted driving systems that have unfortunately already led to many tragic deaths,” said Matthew Avery, research director at Thatcham Research, which has tested ALKS systems.
This misunderstanding of self-driving systems has already led to a number of incidents in North America involving Tesla’s autopilot system.
