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The level of investment in connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) projects is unlikely to establish the UK as a leading centre of the technology, according to an analytics company.
GlobalData said “a few hundred million pounds in public funding” couldn’t compete with the billions being pumped into CAV technologies by global giants such as Google’s sister company Waymo.
However, it added that the funding could help the UK become a leader in driverless vehicle testing instead.
The government intends on spending around £300m as part of a strategy to make the UK a global leader in autonomous vehicle production.
But GlobalData said this shouldn’t be an expectation for the investment.
Tony Cripps, principal analyst at GlobalData, said: “The UK government is attempting to create a UK ecosystem of home-grown CAV technology suppliers and testing facilities through a series of investments and competitions aimed at stimulating co-operation between industry, academia and government institutions.
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“While this direct government involvement in the development of CAVs and CAV technology is unusual, the level of investment seems unlikely to create products to compete with those from suppliers such as Waymo and Cruise Automation.”
Cripps said the development of regulations and standards for testing and deployment of CAVs would likely prove to be the most important in the long term: “The greatest legacy of the UK government’s CAV investments is likely to be in steering the rest of the world in terms of accommodating CAVs into existing transportation infrastructure and services and in developing new ones.”
An assurance system, CAV PASS, was announced by the government last month, which provides standards for autonomous vehicles to prevent defects and ensure they are safe from cyber attacks.
