£900m for driverless vehicles that Clarkson says nearly killed him
PLANS to boost funding for driverless cars will be unveiled by Theresa May today.
The Prime Minister will join Chancellor Philip Hammond and Business Secretary Greg Clark on a visit to the West Midlands to outline plans to invest an extra £80billion in general research and development over the coming decade.
Around £900million will go on driverless cars, which could become a regular sight on roads by 2021. Mr Hammond said Britain had to embrace new technology after leaving the EU.
However, campaigners warned of the risks of self- driving cars and Jeremy Clarkson said yesterday that one had nearly killed him.
Jack Cousens, head of roads policy at the AA, said filling in potholes was more a concern for motorists.
‘There are certainly things we need to look at before we have driverless cars on our roads,’ he said.
‘First of all the technology of driverless cars has to be tested to the hilt, and then some, to ensure they are safe enough to be driven on our roads. The driving nation are sceptical about the concept – although younger drivers, or those due to take their tests within the next few years, are more keen to have a look at what driverless technology can do. They may embrace it sooner than any other age group.
‘Secondly, we need to get the infrastructure right. What drivers would like to hear alongside this announcement is what money the Government is going to be spending on filling potholes on our roads – and not in a piecemeal way.’
Mr Hammond yesterday acknowledged that the idea of allowing driverless cars on Britain’s roads within four years might seem optimistic. But he added: ‘We have to take up these challenges if we want to see Britain leading the next industrial revolution.
‘We have a huge advantage across a whole range of new technologies that are going to transform our lives and if we want to ensure our prosperity in the post-Brexit world, we have got to embrace these new technologies, we’ve got to build the industries that will create the high paying jobs of tomorrow and driverless vehicles is one of them.’
Other areas to be prioritised by the Government include artificial intelligence, clean energy and data storage and management.
The Prime Minister last night said support for industries of this kind would ‘help businesses to create high- quality, well-paid jobs across the country’.
Ministers will also announce a £1.7billion plan to improve transport links between prosperous city centres and struggling suburbs.
The Transforming Cities fund is designed to address weaknesses in transport systems to spread prosperity by improving connectivity, reducing congestion and introducing new mobility services and technology. This could include funding for new tram networks and cycle lanes.
Ministers will also commit to working with industry to boost spending on research and development to 2.4 per cent of GDP – the average level among leading developed countries over the next decade – an increase of more than 40 per cent.
The announcements will feed into an industrial strategy, which is due to be unveiled next week.
Writing in The Sunday Times, Clarkson claimed he was almost killed twice while testing a driverless car. The Grand Tour TV host said: ‘I drove a car the other day which has a claim of autonomous capability and twice in the space of 50 miles on the M4 it made a mistake, a huge mistake, which could have resulted in death.’
Without identifying the make or model of the car for legal reasons, he said the incident convinced him that the technology was a ‘very long way off’.
The 57-year- old’s former Top Gear co-host, Richard Hammond, has also expressed concerns about autonomous technology on his DriveTribe blog. ‘It only needs one tiny, tiny thing to go wrong somewhere along the infinitely long chain of design, build, service and maintenance events,’ he said.