Driverless car trials to start in Scotland
Delivery vehicles also set to form part of testing this year
Driverless vehicles are to be tested in Scotland with a trial that could include delivery vehicles.
The Scottish Government is keen to catch up with developments south of the Border, where experiments with autonomous transport started three years ago.
However, the head of a commission examining the future of Scottish transport has warned that the technology could increase the number of vehicles on the roads.
The trials are expected to follow a “demonstration summit” to be held later this year, which has been announced by transport minister Humza Yousaf.
They could involve vans and/ or lorries since Mr Yousaf has told MSPS they will “potentially be with the freight and logistics sectors”.
Trials elsewhere have included Volvo in Sweden using lorries travelling close together in “platoons” controlled from the lead vehicle. The UK government plans a similar exercise on motorways.
A spokesman for the Scottish Government’s Transport Scotland agency said: “The minister was illustrating a sector that could potentially benefit from autonomous vehicles (AVS) in creating a more efficient road network.
“The upcoming summit will
explore other areas that could also benefit, and narrow down what Scotland would most like to learn from a pilot.
“Trials of automated technologies are possible in Scotland today, as it is across the UK, providing a test driver is present and takes responsibility for the safe operation of the vehicle – and that the vehicle can be used compatibly with road traffic law. We are keen to explore how we can facilitate trials and pilots in Scotland. The summit is the first step on that journey.”
A new report by a connectivity commission appointed by business group Scottish Council for Development and Industry said AVS could cut crashes and make travel easier for those who couldn’t drive.
However, the Scotland’s Big Mo [mobility] study also warned they might encourage more trips by car rather than on foot or by bike, increasing the cost of road maintenance.
Commission chair George Hazel said: “They could mean we don’t need room for parking any more, which would free space in cities.
“But if we all have AVS and all live in places like Balfron and Pitlochry with AVS driving us to the office, it would lead to the spread of cities. Nobody really knows the impact.”
Neil Greig, the Scotlandbased policy and research director of motoring group IAM Roadsmart, said: “Realworld trials are the best way to introduce Scots to the benefits and pitfalls of AVS.
“Administratively it should be simpler here with one government, one police force, fewer authorities and many world-famous companies and universities.
“What we lack in a homegrown motor industry we can more than make up for by offering extreme weather and some very congested motorways and cities to test AVS to the limit.
“The research priorities should be around public acceptability and the safe handover of control between humans and machines.
“More and more evidence is emerging that any system that retains any element of human intervention cannot deliver the huge safety benefits we have been promised.”the freight industry is awaiting details of the plans. A spokesman for the Road Haulage Association said: “We understand there’s going to be a summit later in the year to examine the trialling of autonomous vehicles, but we’re waiting to find out more on this.
“There’s nothing concrete that we know of at the moment.”
Like renewable energy, the death of the high street and colonies on Mars, driverless cars seem like the future.
Robot drivers don’t break the law or go too fast round hairpin bends to impress their mates. Artificial intelligence is programmed to drive in the way we all should drive.
Chancellor Philip Hammond has said “genuine” driverless cars will be on Britain’s streets as early as 2021 and, as The Scotsman reports today, trials are set to begin in Scotland after a demonstration summit later this year. And yet, for all the suggestions that they will be much safer because of the elimination of human error, many people still hesitate. There is something slightly unnerving about being driven about by a machine.
Perhaps we have been brainwashed into distrusting robots by works of fiction like The Terminator film franchise and Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot. A new technology is always a choice. If enough people overcome their concerns, others will be swept along, but if we collectively decide to remain in control of the wheel, driverless cars may prove to be a vision of the future that gets stuck in the past.