It has been suggested by The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee in their report ‘Connected and Autonomous Vehicles: The future?’ that the Government should focus on getting the best benefits from this industry. The report has been written to lay out some recommendations for the Government, which includes suggestions for changes in policy and investments that could lead to the UK getting the best economic value from the autonomous vehicle sector.

It is thought that the work on Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, or CAVs will create change in sectors such as marine and agriculture before the road using vehicles start to use this technology. It has been stated in the report that the Government must then therefore widen the focus of their work in order to get the most out of the developments out of these sectors instead of focusing on the development of driverless cars.

The House of Lords team working on this report have also mentioned that they didn’t find a clear and unanimous strategy laid out across all sectors. The information shared with the industries that could benefit from CAVs and the progress in robotics is not unified either. This lack of coordination could lead to slower developments and means it could take longer for the industries that can benefit to get access to the correct technology. It has been stated in the report that a panel should be set up, a Robotics and Autonomous Systems Leadership Council in order to develop a proper strategy for CAV.

The House of Lords committee were provided with evidence that in order to get the best out of CAV on roads in the UK will require a regeneration of the roads and communication infrastructure to accommodate the new vehicles. Although there are issues that need to be looked at, such as what could happen when human error is removed from driving, and how a driver’s ability will be affected by complacency.