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As part of the People in Autonomous Vehicles in Urban Environments (PAVE) consortium based at Culham Science Centre in Oxfordshire, Amey will team up with government and industry partners to explore the potential impact of autonomous vehicle technology on the UK’s infrastructure.

Amey will collect opinions from councillors, local authorities, travel planners, emergency services, industry experts and policy makers to understand the perceived benefits and challenges of driverless vehicles.

PAVE consortium had secured funding from Innovate UK, a government innovation agency, to carry out a feasibility study to find out public perceptions towards autonomous vehicles in the wake of public apprehension about the change in transportation technology.

Amey IT director of smart data and technology Dr Rick Robinson said: "The UK has the highest internet search requests on driverless cars anywhere in the world, however recent studies suggest that while people think that driverless car technology potentially offers enormous economic and societal benefits, there are concerns, particularly about safety.

"While these vehicles remain in development phase, now is an important time to explore the views of people who understand the wider implications of the technology.

"We are keen to learn what autonomous vehicles mean for transport infrastructure and how we can design the transport network of tomorrow."

"We are keen to learn what autonomous vehicles mean for transport infrastructure and how we can design the transport network of tomorrow.

"We see this project as an exciting opportunity to work as part of a consortium whose focus is not necessarily the technology itself, but rather the stakeholder and infrastructure environment in which autonomous vehicles will operate."

The findings from this research is expected to inform future government policies regarding the technology.

The consortium will publish its final report by 2017.


Image: Amey will gather information from public, experts, etc about autonomous technology. Photo: Courtesy of Amey plc.