Transport Scotland has set out a series of initiatives to promote the development of connected autonomous vehicles (CAV) in the country.
It has published A CAV Roadmap for Scotland, examining the emergence of the technology and its contribution to future economic growth.
The seven initiatives are focused on broad approaches rather than detailed projects, and will be aligned with the National Transport Strategy:
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Transport Scotland will seek opportunities to influence, engage with and support initiatives to establish CAV trials that address specific Scottish contextual needs and development.
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It will look for opportunities to work with partners to provide information on the safety benefits of advanced driver assistance systems, and other connectivity features.
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It will work with business to identify opportunities to utilise CAV, intelligent mobility and last mile delivery technologies.
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The CAV Scotland conference and demonstrator summits of 2018 and 2019 will be repeated.
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There is a need to collectively explore opportunities for investment in CAV infrastructure with partners including the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, Innovate UK, Scottish Enterprise, the Connected Places Catapult and the Scottish National Investment Bank.
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Transport Scotland will engage with others to understand what it has to do to ensure future ready ITS Infrastructure for CAVs is being specified in future road investment.
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It will encourage the capture and modelling of data during infrastructure and transport schemes and maintenance projects to be made available to companies developing simulation and testing tools for CAV software and solutions.
The paper also highlights the potential of cooperative intelligent transport systems (C-ITS), saying they can greatly increase the quality and reliability of information being shared through the system, enabling the sharing of information between vehicles, roadside equipment, traffic control centres and nomadic devices via a standardised communication architecture.
In addition, it makes a distinction between Day 1 services which are expected to be deployed in the short term, and Day 1.5 services, for which there is currently a lower level of digital maturity.
Key commitment
Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity Michael Matheson said: “I am delighted to launch the CAV Roadmap and deliver one of the key commitments from our Programme for Government.
“It sets out how Scotland can play a key role in this fast-moving industry, as well as the steps we need to take to unlock these opportunities. I intend Scotland to be at the forefront of these technologies. We are ‘open for business’ to test, demonstrate and pilot autonomous vehicle trials.
“The deployment of connected and automated vehicles has the potential to bring transformative change to peoples’ lives - not just in how we travel, but in how we work, where we live, the environment, and safety.”
Image from GOV.UK, Open Government Licence v3.0
