UK in 5th place in the autonomous vehicle race

A report released this week shows that the UK is in 5^th place in the race for driverless cars.

Various key players in the automotive industry like BMW, Mercedes, Volkswagen and Volvo amongst others, bringing technological advances in the autonomous vehicle industry to expand their service offering is fast becoming the focus of their strategy.

The autonomous car market is projected to grow in Europe in the coming years, due to early adoption of autonomous transport, with the main players in the region currently conducting ‘level 4’ tests in the hope to expand the market considerably in the future.

The Netherlands, the only country to be ahead of level 4 testing, and which ranks first for its ‘readiness’ for autonomous cars is currently leading the race. It is said that their roadway infrastructure is unrivalled, as is the availability of their wireless networks and electric vehicle charging stations. And, in 2018 the Dutch Government passed a bill allowing large-scale testing for autonomous vehicles (AV) without a driver on board – a good reason why they are ahead of the competition.

Top 10 countries leading the race for autonomous vehicles

1 - Netherlands
2 - Norway
3 - Sweden
4 - Finland
5 - UK
6 - Germany
7 - Austria
8 - France
9 - Spain
10 - Hungary

The UK in 5th place

The UK has dropped 2 places since the last report down to 5^th place. The UK continues to perform well in the autonomous vehicle industry, with a forward thinking approach, which is said to make deploying AV’s very efficient. November 2018, saw the government announce its support for 3 public trials in 2021 which included autonomous buses, and self-driving taxi’s in Scotland.

Interestingly there are a number of UK based companies that are competing with the likes of Google and Tesla, appearing in the news for testing self-driving cars in the South of the UK.

So it looks like there is some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel for the UK to climb back up to 3^rd place, as technology companies continue to bring advanced technology utilising GPU and artificial intelligence to the market place unlocking the potential for more private organisations to be inspired by government led projects aimed at making our cities smarter.