Self-driving vehicles will deliver significant safety, social, and economic benefits to the UK and the arrival of cars with such technology, on motorways in the first instance, will also alleviate the stress of mundane driving in certain situations.
Advanced driver assistance features are already widely available in new vehicles today. These include advanced emergency braking, lane keeping assist and adaptive cruise control.
To the public, however, some of these existing driver assistance technologies could be confused with self-driving features. As vehicle technology becomes ever more advanced, it is critical for stakeholders and consumers to understand the differences between these two technologies.
To help, SMMT and government’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), with input from the AV-DRiVE Group, have developed a Self-driving Vehicle Communications Toolkit. The AV-DRiVE Group includes representatives from the automotive sector, insurance industry, advertising sector, law enforcement, road safety organisations and relevant government agencies.
The toolkit provides industry stakeholders with key messages, guidance and material on self-driving vehicles that can be embedded within marketing and communications strategies, including a set of clear definitions, terminologies and explanations, using plain language.
It also contains specific guidance on how Automated Lane Keeping System (ALKS) technology, the first internationally approved and soon to be commercially available self-driving feature, operates. The toolkit will be updated as other features become available.
Only by working together to communicate clearly and consistently about self-driving vehicle technology will government, industry and stakeholders build market confidence, avoid confusion and harness the full benefits of these exciting technologies, ultimately making the UK’s roads safer for all users.
