Will your driverless car cope in all weathers and types of traffic?

The Policy and Research Department at IAM RoadSmart are now involved in a new UK government funded project to ensure that future autonomous vehicles can cope with all possible circumstances on the roads. The project rings together the disciplines of computer science, engineering, law, mathematics, philosophy and psychology from five UK universities to develop “a comprehensive toolbox of principles, methods and systematic approaches for the engineering of resilient autonomous systems”. So far only one meeting has been held, but it opened up some interesting debates on the ethics of future autonomous vehicles and their ability to deal with all possible scenarios. There is some interest in the concept of driverless cars being asked to deliver a digital “commentary drive” to help understand what they are seeing and reacting to. Such vehicles are still some way off but the UK government want to lead the world in setting the legal and technical frameworks for their use.