Electric shuttles developed by EasyMile and RoboSoft as part of the Citymobil2 programme
VEHICLES OF THE FUTURE With almost every major automotive company joining the race to bring the first driverless car to market, and autonomous public transport solutions being tested throughout the world, governing bodies are working to put legislation in place to meet the challenges of this transport revolution. Industry Europe looks at some of the most recent developments in this sector.
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here is no stopping the rise of autonomous driving technology: it is only a matter of time before the technological infrastructure is in place to ensure driverless vehicles can navigate our road networks safely. European players such as BMW, Volvo and Daimler are all working on their own projects, not to mention global producers such as Nissan and Ford. We are also seeing collaborations between vehicle manufacturers and software companies, such as that between Uber and Swedenbased Volvo, involving a pilot project for self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, US, as part of the world’s first automated taxi service. But it is not just the automotive companies that are jumping on board – Google has famously been working on its own autonomous vehicle since 2009. 12 Industry Europe
And there are certainly plenty of incentives to push forward driverless vehicles. It has been estimated that around 94 per cent of crashes are due to human error; eliminate this, so the theory goes, and you greatly reduce fatalities. Furthermore, the UK’s Department for Transport believes driverless cars will allow people to be more mobile and productive on their commutes, as well as cutting emissions and reducing traffic congestion.
Legislative challenges But on the flip side of the coin, there are still many challenges to be addressed. The need for targeted Europe-wide – and indeed global – legislation is one of the biggest hurdles to be faced before we see autonomous vehicles on our roads. For example, negotiations on a UN regulation that keeps
driverless cars from going faster than 10km per hour won’t be concluded until the second half of 2017. Moreover, all the new European vehicles in development – whether it is Finland’s Easymile EZ-10 bus or BMW’s iVision Future Interaction concept car – will rely on advanced connectivity. How cars exchange data with manufacturers, traffic controllers, emergency services and other road users is just as important as the functioning of the vehicle itself: a car may be autonomous, but it cannot function in isolation. Another issue is that driverless transit will require higher, steadier Internet speeds than are currently available within the EU. According to Ismail Ertug, a member of the European Parliament from the Socialist and Democrats Group: “In order to keep pace in
