We’ve seen this happen successfully in maturer markets like China and the US, where AVs have clocked millions of miles in trials. But the legislation has to come first. And while our market has lagged behind these world-leaders, the UK’s Automated Vehicles Act 2024 has set the stage for self-driving vehicles to be on British roads by 2026.

Paving the way for change

The Act introduces an authorisation regime for self-driving cars, with stringent safety standards, legal accountability frameworks, and information-gathering powers for monitoring compliance. It distinguishes between vehicles with "user-in-charge" features and those without, establishing clear rules for both, and addresses marketing restrictions to prevent misleading promotions of self-driving capabilities.
It's already thought that AVs could bolster the logistics industry by improving efficiency, reducing costs, and addressing driver shortages. But the wider economic impact could be huge. From 2018 to 2022, the AV sector attracted £475 million in investment and led to the creation of 1,500 new jobs. The government projects it could be worth £42 billion and generate 38,000 skilled jobs by 2035.

Do we need to fear AV?

Consumers may feel hesitant to embrace passenger AVs, but safety is one of the big drivers – pun intended – behind automation: human error is the leading cause of road traffic accidents. Furthermore, other applications adopting this technology, but a safer distance from public highways, are theoretically a useful proving-ground for the full suite of autonomous technology and attendant services.

Some brands to watch

This is a market with bags of potential, but still in its infancy. We know from experience that new markets fluctuate, stutter, experience periods of sudden expansion that create winners and losers alike. There’s plenty of exciting stuff happening here, with a huge number of players to watch. Here are just a few:

Wayve

Founded in 2017, UK AI startup Wayve offers an adaptive, situation-based driving system for autonomous cars based on end-to-end machine-learning algorithms and computer vision.  Sensationally, Wayve has acquired an investment of over $1 billion, backed by Japan’s SoftBank, Nvidia and Microsoft. It’s the biggest investment in a European AI startup to date.

Wayve will use its funds to develop the first embodied AI technology, which enables automated vehicles to learn from and interact with a real-world environment, including unexpected situations and actions from drivers or pedestrians. Wayve’s technology is currently integrated into six vehicle platforms as advanced driver assistance systems, including the Jaguar I-Pace and the Ford Mustang MachE.

Five AI

Founded in 2015 and acquired by Bosch in 2022, Five AI is creating an autonomous driver system which doesn’t need to run on navigation 3D maps, instead using LiDAR and other sensors, deep learning and motion planning systems to drive autonomously.

Oxa

Founded in 2014, Oxa (formerly Oxbotica) has a software platform and cloud-based management tools, which it calls Universal Autonomy™, that allow any vehicle to be self-driving. It has already garnered an impressive collection of firsts, including the first zero-occupancy autonomous vehicle journey on publicly-accessible roads in Europe, in 2022.

Muddy Machines

A developer of AI-driven robotic technology designed for farmers, Muddy Machines specialises in autonomous field robots that are provided as Robots-as-a-service. Equipped with custom harvesting tools and machine learning capabilities to detect, monitor, and harvest crops, these operate on battery power, offering an efficient solution for modern agriculture.

StreetDrone

A provider of autonomous delivery vehicles, StreetDrone offers a comprehensive hardware and software integration platform for creating street-ready self-driving cars. The brand aims to make port operations more efficient, safer and more affordable, and facilitates the development, deployment, and testing of self-driving software using the street-legal Renault EV framework, equipped with built-in sensors and computational hardware, known as the StreetDrone ONE.

Aurrigo

A developer of self-driving vehicles designed for airport baggage handling and passenger transport. Aurrigo’s PodZero is an autonomous, on-demand pod for first and last-mile transportation that enhances mobility in urban areas, shopping malls, airports, and university campuses. The company also offers a customer booking app, allowing users to request rides while enabling businesses to provide personalised deals along the route.

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What caught our attention this month

Amazon is one of six organisations selected by the Civil Aviation Authority to trial “beyond visual line of sight” (BVLOS) drone flights - where operators are not required to keep drones within visual range. As a result, the retail giant could deliver small packages by drone, by the end of this year.

In other drone-related news, a joint study by Australia’s RMIT and Bristol University found that a Nankeen Kestrel - a small falcon - moves its head less than 5mm while hovering over prey. The discovery, based on wind tunnel tests, could pave the way for improved drone stability and manoeuvrability, especially in turbulent conditions.

And it's good to see that the UK has the greenest bus fleet in Europe, according to the SMMT.