IT industry association techUK has emphasised the need for standardisation, best practice and strong cyber security in the move to connected and autonomous mobility (CAM).
It has published a report on the issue, produced with Frazer-Nash Consultancy, setting out the data, telecoms and cyber security measures needed for the integration of CAM in the UK transport system.
It puts together views from techUK’s self-driving vehicles working group, based on research with the association’s member companies.
The move comes at a time when a handful of regional and local authorities – including the Greater Cambridge Partnership and Sunderland City Council – have run projects on the use of self-driving vehicles in public transport, and the Geospatial Commission has identified the need for data standards to support connected vehicles.
techUk said the working group has recommended that areas of focus should include gaining industry consensus on best practice and data sharing standards to enable connected autonomous vehicle services, and driving standardisation with requirements for the right data.
This would include safety data, such as hazard perception and decision making required for proving that a vehicle can operate equivalent to a careful and competent human driver.
Connectivity success
These should be accompanied by measuring the success of connectivity in meeting service needs, rather than coverage across the country, and efforts to link CAM cyber security to standards for other digital systems to support consistent operation across the network and learn from evolving threats.
“Achieving a well integrated CAM system in the UK, capable of forming part of a wider transport system that can deliver high-quality services across the country, is clearly a multi-faceted challenge,” the report says.
