What’s in the € 120 million UK plan for autonomous driving

25 August 20222 years ago babelfish

The UK still accelerates on autonomous driving: 100 million pounds on the plate. In addition to the money, however, a regulatory system that is up to standard on safety standards, technologies, approvals, criminal and civil liability in the event of accidents will be needed. It could be the first of the Old Continent

In Great Britain very soon there will no longer be only the peculiarity of driving in the left lane, it will not drive at all: or rather, not directly. The island has been following and encouraging driverless driving for some time, to the point that the British government, albeit resigning, has presented a plan with investments of 100 million pounds (about 118 million euros) to give a further boost to the compartment. To be precise, 34 million are earmarked for research and development. For its part, the executive believes that this ultra-technological sector, which sees universities, incubators, startups and major brands working side by side, will be worth, alone, 38,000 new jobs.

THE ISLAND THAT DRIVES ITSELF (AND DOES NOT SCRAP FOREIGN INVESTMENTS)

In the United Kingdom, moreover, there are several realities involved in the project, capable of competing even with the big names in Silicon Valley. Starting with Five, the British startup with six offices and 140 employees. Of course, it is not easy to rival overseas rivals, who have web giants such as Alphabet behind them, and for this reason imported help to Five will be given by the funds of the German multinational Bosch.

“Autonomous driving aims to make road traffic safer and less stressful. We want Five to give further impetus to our software development work for safe autonomous driving, with the aim of offering our customers technology made in Europe, ”said Markus Heyn , member of the Bosch Board of Management and president of the sector. of business Mobility Solutions, commenting on the recent acquisition of the startup founded in 2016. Five has from its experts in cloud software, security assurance, robotics and machine learning and is developing an artificial intelligence for autonomous driving up to the Sae level 4.

The startup is now developing a cloud-based development and testing platform for software used in self-driving cars that ensures that engineers have all the programs they need to create self-driving algorithms in the shortest time possible. .

In addition, it allows you to test the software both before and during development in test vehicles. It can also be used to analyze real-world data from a fleet of test vehicles, create a variety of test scenarios, and create a simulation environment that allows for rapid evaluation and validation of system behavior.

AUTONOMOUS GUIDE, TWO YEARS TO GO FROM LEVEL 3 SAE TO 5

In short, Brexit does not seem to have dissuaded foreign investors and this new package of around 120 million euros could do a lot, the purpose of which is to get to the purchase and circulation on the motorway of cars with driverless technologies within the next 12-16 months. . The reason for starting from extra-urban contexts is obvious and soon said: despite the speed limits on the motorway are less stringent, the conformation of the tracks presents fewer unknowns that could worry the AI when driving. By the way, what artificial intelligence will we have on board?

In all likelihood, we are talking about autonomous driving corresponding to level 3 of the SAE scale. We remind you that level 1 is characterized by the driver assistance systems that take over the command (acceleration, braking, or the steering of the vehicle) only in sporadic situations, as the now common parking assistant or the braking system already does today. automatic emergency. In short, whoever is behind the wheel is not a passive passenger, but allows AI to take over only at specific times and in contexts of safety for themselves and for others.

Sae Level 2 is already semi-automated driving, in which the system takes care of both accelerating / braking, and steering for a certain amount of time or in specific situations, asking the driver to constantly monitor the system and be able to resume in driving control at any time (Adaptive Cruise Control, ACC and Lane Keeping Assistant, LKA).

The third level of automation, which the UK is aiming for by the end of 2023, corresponds to automated driving with the vehicle taking control of acceleration / braking and steering for a certain amount of time or in specific situations, without the driver is required to constantly monitor the vehicle. It is the maximum that is being worked on for busy contexts and is not well received in many countries around the world. Nonetheless, a next level has already been envisaged, Sae 4, in which the AI takes over the full management of the vehicle and the vehicle driver no longer has to devote his attention to traffic, limiting himself to acting as a passenger.

The last level, the Sae 5 does not even provide for the presence of drivers and therefore does not include controls on which to intervene. The AI will therefore also have to give answers to the famous moral questions such as, for example, whether in critical situations it is necessary to privilege an unwary very old pedestrian who has suddenly crossed the road and skidded on the sidewalk, which however is occupied by a schoolchild waiting for the bus. It sounds like science fiction, but tomorrow it will be reality.

The UK plan on autonomous driving intends to reach the fifth level by 2025, putting on the road means of public transport and freight delivery without drivers or even steering wheels and pedals. In the USA, the experimentation concerns only areas closed to traffic, such as university campuses and is intended for shuttle systems. Similar choices will probably be made in Great Britain too. In the world there are already fully automated trains and subways, without cabins and controls for drivers, such as the M4 in Milan, but they run on tracks and do not have to make choices of any kind.

LEGISLATIVE ISSUES ON WHO ANSWER IN CLAIMS

All this, to be achieved, not only needs huge investments, but also full regulatory support. The Parliament, in addition to approving the package on autonomous driving of 100 million pounds, will therefore be invested with the responsibility of legislating on safety, technology used, approvals and above all criminal and civil liability in the event of road accidents.

On the latter, a very thorny issue, which will also involve insurance companies and builders, there is a report by the Law Commission which, reporting the agreement between the Legal Commissions of the Parliament of England, Wales and Scotland, could act as a regulatory basis . In practice, it is established that, if a car is equipped with advanced functions, has been homologated and causes an accident, the responsibility lies not with the driver but with the manufacturer.

Those driving will be called to respond in other respects, such as if they have not insured the vehicle, for failure to check the transported items and seat belts fastened. Of course, there will be no liability among passengers for claims of fully automated SAE 5 cars. Here the operator who will remotely follow the races will eventually answer. The bet of automated driving, however, will be to have fewer claims. If this were the case, it would finally lead to a logical and consequential reduction in the costs of RCA insurance.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/cosa-ce-nel-piano-uk-da-120-milioni-di-euro-per-la-guida-autonoma/ on Wed, 24 Aug 2022 10:04:57 +0000.