Self-driving cars ‘won’t get road rage or be distracted by kids in the backseat’

Driverless cars will make journeys safer, halt road rage and combat drink-driving, the transport secretary has said.

Outlining her plans for the future of travel, Heidi Alexander said Britain
should ‘embrace technology’ and will run self-driving vehicle pilot projects
across the country in 2026.

Speaking in her office, the MP told Metro: ‘We are going to have some pilots and trials in the spring. We need to pass some secondary legislation in Parliament to set up a permit system so that we can make sure that when we are doing these trials, we do so in a safe and responsible way.

‘But we do think this could be really, really exciting for the future of travel.

‘While some of the companies are saying initially they’re interested in doing trials in London, and they would need to go through a process with Transport for London.’

Her comments came after ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft announced partnerships with Chinese firm Baidu testing its Apollo Go platform in London.

Sceptics say the benefits of driverless cars are negligible. Some fear they could be hacked or put riders’ data at risk.

But the Swindon South MP, who has taken a ride in one, said it was ‘probably more cautious than a human driver’.

She told Metro: ‘With a cyclist on the one side of the road, an oncoming bus and roadworks, a human driver may have sought to squeeze past the cyclist, but the self-driving car hung back.’

She said the hi-tech cars ‘are not going to be distracted by the kids having an argument in the back seat’ and are ‘not going to drink-drive or get road rage’.

‘This could be really good for consumers and safer for people using our roads. That’s why it’s right to do the trial to start off with,’ she said.

When asked how the government will ensure that people’s data is safe in the hands of foreign tech firms, Alexander insisted that it will make sure that ‘anyone operating these types of services on our roads is conforming to the highest standards of safety, and that includes in terms of people’s data and privacy as well.’

But a poll hints the technology faces a struggle to get off the ground – two thirds of Metro readers insist they will not ride a robotaxi.

Meanwhile, the wheels are in motion for the launch of the Great British Railways, a publicly owned train firm. Several operators have been nationalised in the past year, with more in the pipeline before the GBR launch in the spring.

Freezing regulated rail fares will also ‘make a big difference’ to the lives of
commuters and families going on a day out, Ms Alexander said.

‘The fact no government has done this in 30 years is a signal of how seriously this government takes making public transport affordable for people as we bring train operating companies back into public ownership, nationalise the railways and stop the leakage of money to the private sector.

‘It means we can get better value for money for people,’ she said.

Ms Alexander also expects to finalise plans that will see both Heathrow and Gatwick airports expanded by 2029.

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