5 years - we’ve only just begun…
June 1st, 2024 marks five years since I started Reed Mobility. In that time, we’ve seen the COVID-19 pandemic, military conflicts in Europe and the Middle East, four UK Prime Ministers, two US Presidents and, of course, one Automated Vehicles (AV) Act. I have heard that you are lucky if you get to see primary legislation passed in your field of expertise once in your working life. It was certainly a fascinating process to observe.
The Law Commissions started their first of three consultations in November of 2018. I (along with many others) responded to each consultation and had several meetings with the team as they shaped their recommendations to government. Following the inclusion of self-driving vehicles in the King's Speech at the State Opening of parliament in November 2023, these recommendations crystallised into the draft AV bill. The skillful composition of the bill and the intense work of the CCAV team in support meant that it passed through to Royal Assent remarkably rapidly and with minimal changes.
The text of the Act was composed in such a way that it is hard to disagree with its key propositions. Some of these perhaps took some inspiration from work to which I contributed as a member of an expert group that produced recommendations for the European Commission on the ethics of connected and automated vehicles. In particular, that:
vehicles should be at least as safe as a ‘careful and competent’ human driver (although our work did not use this exact phrase);
no category of road user (e.g. pedestrians, cyclists etc.) should experience an increase in risk as a result of AV deployment;
developers should ensure that their systems behave in an explainable manner “...beyond a strictly technical understanding for experts.”
Now that the Act is in place, intense work is needed to determine how these requirements will be fulfilled by those intending to operate AVs on public roads.
One approach that might contribute is Digital Commentary Driving (DCD). This is probably the piece of work I am most proud of since starting Reed Mobility. Funded by BSI and working with a great team, the concept is that there should be a standardised approach to collecting and sharing data from AVs to demonstrate that they are operating safely. The idea has an intuitive appeal and the majority of people who have heard about it recognise that something like this will be needed to ensure we can trust the safe operation of AVs on public roads.
What has been interesting is to see the hesitance there has been from AV developers and the wider automotive industry to engage with this idea without necessarily having any alternatives to show how they intend to meet the requirements set out in the AV act. A variety of reasons that have been cited e.g.:
Commercial sensitivity (but the data would only be shared with regulators);
Public sector readiness to cope with the volumes of data that would be produced (but the critical data needed would be tiny in comparison to the huge amounts of data otherwise collected by AVs)
Since DCD data is vehicle-generated, it wouldn’t necessarily pick up specific errors made by the vehicle’s own errors of perception (but this would only be one tool among many for assessing AV safety and even errors of perception are likely to be picked up eventually as the AV will sometimes have to make sudden corrections in response to such errors)
In the absence of something like DCD to give transparency to AV operation, it’s hard to see how the requirements of the AV Act can be met. It’s not something I’d be willing to be a billion dollars on…
Associated with this topic, I was delighted that, in 2022, I was able to my further work on trust and AV ethics in a collaborative project with TRL, DG Cities, April Six and Humanising Autonomy and funded by the Rees Jeffreys Road Fund - where we conducted surveys and workshops to understand the key elements that will enable the public to build trust in this technology. It was doubly pleasing for this project to win the research category of Cars of the Future’s inaugural 2023 Self-Driving Industry awards (entries open for 2024!).
What else has happened for Reed Mobility since 2019? I’ve enjoyed the ride so far. In particular, I'm also really happy with the work I have been doing for National Highways for the past three years as their independent Chief Road Safety Adviser. Helping the smart and passionate road safety team to form their strategy for progressing towards the Vision Zero ambition has been very rewarding, especially supporting engagement with many of the organisations that National Highways will have to encourage / fund / collaborate with as part of that journey.
This advisory capacity has grown with similar roles with the Dutch economics research agency, SEO; as a founding member of the DfT’s College of Experts and as a member of the advisory board to PAVE (Partners of Automated Vehicle Education) UK.
I am also very pleased to have been able to support Brake, Roadsafe and The Road Safety Trust as a trustee, reinforcing my commitment to reducing the numbers of deaths and serious injuries we still face each year. Each organisation in its own way is making significant but sadly necessary contributions to the global road safety challenge and the push towards Vision Zero. I have enjoyed my work for FISITA as a non-executive director and supporting their activities to develop the mobility engineers of the future. It has also been fun to engage with former colleagues as part of the ITEN (International Transport Experts Network) group - with our complementary skill sets offering a unique capability to the transport market.
So plenty has happened but lots more to do! I’m very grateful to all the organisations that have put their trust in me to support them with their connected and automated vehicles, road safety and transport innovation projects. With the prospect of a new UK government arriving one month from now and many great ideas for improvements to road safety on the shelf and ready to go, the next five years are shaping up to be just as busy. In the beautiful tones of Karen Carpenter, we’ve only just begun…