Why the government’s driverless cars consultation is important for fleets

Paul Hollick, chair, Association of Fleet Professionals, shares why the government’s driverless cars consultation is important for fleets

The government recently announced a consultation on driverless taxis, buses and other passenger carrying vehicles, which should lead to limited trials next year ahead of wider implementation under the Automated Vehicles Act in 2027.

Relatively few AFP members operate passenger carrying vehicles but this exercise will still be of huge interest because it represents the first wave of driverless vehicle adoption in the UK, something that will probably have repercussions for all vehicle operators in the future.

The scope of the consultation is quite wide ranging, looking at what it describes as the challenges and benefits of driverless vehicles. Its outcome and the subsequent trials could impact on whether, for example, these vehicles must always be used with a remote safety driver or allowed to operate entirely autonomously.

Issues such as this will in the medium term probably have significant ramifications for our members in both operational and risk management respects, establishing general guidelines that could affect all fleets in the future.

There are very big questions to be answered from a risk point of view that we may now start to see resolved. At the most fundamental level, fleets will want to know whether it is safe to put employees in driverless vehicles, how it affects the risk of injury to them and to other road users, and how their insurers will view its adoption?

With trials now only a year away, we should start to build up a detailed picture quite quickly.