The UK's Automated Vehicles Act became law in May 2024.
A news release posted by the government at the time said, "Road safety is at the heart of the legislation, with automated vehicles expected to improve road safety by reducing human error." The article went on to talk about "... an industry estimated to be worth up to £42 billion and creating 38,000 more skilled jobs by 2035."
All talk?
Safer roads and tens of thousands of new job opportunities sounds like just what the country needs, but exactly how is this rosy future supposed to be realised? We're all for innovative tech and increased employment, but legislation and optimism alone aren't enough to remove the practical obstacles that stand between the rhetoric and the reality.
The hype surrounding self-driving cars seems to have been around forever. We've covered the topic several times in the past, often reporting substantial problems that have arisen during on-road trials. Despite autonomous vehicles having been 'The Next Big Thing' for years, we still don't see them out in the wild.
Where are we now?
In the late 2010s, SAE International (formerly the Society of Automotive Engineers) developed a six-level taxonomy for classifying the capabilities of autonomous vehicles.
SAE J3016™ Levels of Driving Automation™
| Driver support features | |
| SAE LEVEL 0™ | No automatic driving features. This 'non-level' is simply a comparison benchmark |
| SAE LEVEL 1™ Driver assistance | The vehicle has one automated, driver assistance feature, such as cruise control that utilises speed monitoring. |
| SAE LEVEL 2™ Partial automation | The vehicle can perform certain steering and acceleration control tasks automatically but the human driver is needed to monitor and take control as necessary. |
| Automated driving features | |
| SAE LEVEL 3™ Conditional automation | Environmental detection means that the vehicle and its support infrastructure can perform most automated driving tasks. The human operator is required to monitor and take control if things go wrong or if conditions exceed the vehicle's capabilities. |
| SAE LEVEL 4™ High automation | The vehicle performs all driving tasks under appropriate conditions, such as operating in a specific "geofenced" area approved for use by such vehicles. The human operator can override autonomous driving. |
| SAE LEVEL 5™ Full automation | The vehicle has complete driving autonomy. Human intervention is not required. |
We've seen Level 1 and Level 2 in features that have been available for some time, such as cruise control and self-parking. The jump to the next level is a biggie, and is the one that seems to be taking the time.
Are we there yet?
Mercedes-Benz, one of the companies at the cutting edge of autonomous vehicle development, now offers Level 3 autonomy as a retail option in the USA. While it is an exciting development, it does have some very significant limitations.
EQS and S-Class sedans feature Mercedes' Drive Pilot technology. While Drive Pilot does automate driving to the extent that the driver can take their attention off the road, it can only function under a specific set of conditions:
- The system is currently only permitted in California and Nevada.
- It can only be activated during daylight and clear weather.
- It can only be used on a set of roads pre-approved by Mercedes.
- It can only be used at speeds up to 40mph
- It cannot be used in construction areas
- It requires a $2,500 annual subscription.
Limitations notwithstanding, the US government has enough faith in the product to make Mercedes the only manufacturer approved to sell Level 3 autonomous cars to the American public at the time of writing. Mercedes' own faith in Drive Pilot has moved them to assume liability for vehicles while they are using the system.
These developments may help to restore the public's confidence in autonomous cars, which suffered a blow when the self-driving taxi company Cruise was stripped of its California operating licence, after a woman was seriously injured in an accident.
And in local news
Where autonomous driving is concerned, the UK, as usual, lags behind the USA, but we too are seeing progress. The U.K. has permitted driverless cars on public roads for many years already, but only with strict rules and limitations in place.
UK company Wayve has raised more than $1 billion from companies such as SoftBank, Nvidia, and Microsoft, to continue developing a self-learning software system for autonomous vehicles. This investment, along with the clarity provided by the new legislation and updated guidelines for trialling autonomous vehicles in the UK, should hasten movement in the right direction.
Certainly, the UK government has stated that it expects to see elements of Level 3 automation in cars on British roads by 2026.
The road ahead
Our Level 3 waypoint may not be in sight yet, but we're told it's only over the next hill. Even when we do get there, the next leg of the journey towards Level 4 and Level 5 vehicle autonomy is likely to be an even longer one as the increases in software complexity alone are staggering. The science fiction vision of genuine self-driving vehicles is still some way off, but plenty of companies are working hard to get there.
Mercedes may be a lap ahead, but Ford, Jaguar, Tesla, BMW and others are very close behind, and nothing drives progress better than competition.
