Aboard Britain’s first commercial self-driving bus

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Self-driving technology is moving along. Britain’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles co-funds over 90 projects. Fusion Processing is working with Asda, a supermarket, on a self-driving lorry that it hopes to test on public roads next year.

In April the government approved software developed by Ford that allows hands-free driving in passenger cars on motorways. Small, slow-moving autonomous pods have been tried out on footpaths. Promoters say AVs could make transport cheaper, safer and greener.

The government reckons the market could be worth £42bn ($52.4bn) by 2035. That vision is still a long way from being realised. Neil Greig of IAM RoadSmart, a safety charity, says optimism about the sector should be tempered.

“Computer programmers think they can cope with anything, but there are always unexpected things on the road," he warns. And if driverless vehicles are to become widespread and useful, pockets of experimentation will not be enough. British transport law has not kept pace with the technology.

America’s federal government published its first legal framework for self-driving vehicles in 2012; by mid-2022 40 states had passed laws regulating AVs. Gulf countries are increasingly nimble: the UAE’s licensing scheme for AVs comes into force in July. Britain has “transport laws from the 1800s that make reference to horses and carts", says Ben Gardner of Pinsent Masons, a law firm.