1. Brake, the road safety charity
Ensuring Safety through Innovation

2. Mike Carr, Public Affairs Advisor
15 minutes maximum, 5 minutes for any questions
starting with a description of Brake, the road safety charity
followed by an explanation of how innovation can be harnessed or embraced, to bring about a modernised transport system that is
safe, sustainable, healthy and fair.

3. What is Brake?
Brake is a respected, evidence-led, passionate road safety charity
Delivering successful national campaigns that aim to prevent road casualties, to make streets and communities safer, to promote a cleaner sustainable environment and
We support road crash victims.

4. Sustainability?
inhaling particulates causes around 29,000 deaths in the UK annually, which, on recent evidence, may rise to around 40,000 deaths when also considering nitrogen dioxide exposure
An average of 1,825 people die in car crashes each year in the UK
Pollution has been linked to cancer, asthma, stroke and heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and changes linked to dementia. (Royal College of Surgeons 2016 report).

5. Brake also promotes fairness
Roads to justice and Aiming to achieve social justice through sentencing review and reform, to ensure that road crime is clearly recognised as unacceptable and that appropriate penalties are in place to reflect the positive values of society. Values that are shared by the majority. Values that reflect the accepted normality of protecting vulnerable people, young or old, able bodied and those living with disability. Values that put transport at the disposal of people rather than organising people to fit around the demands of more and more vehicles.
In essence, Brake advocates a world in which transport is
safe, sustainable, healthy and fair.

6. But how does our work impact on modernising transport?
the approach favoured by the United Nations, the UK Government (and Brake) is an approach that implements “safe systems”, meaning measures are put in place that mitigate the potential for death and injury when, inevitably, people take risks or make mistakes.
a) Engineering solutions, notably vehicle safety systems and improvements to the road environment (for example segregated cycle paths)
b) Rules and enforcement of rules, at government and organisational levels (for example, driver testing prior to licensing and banning the use of mobile phones), and
c) Risk reduction (for example, encouraging the shift of chosen mode of travelling, from cars to public transport).

7. The history in brief, but it looks a little like this;
2011: Fully-automated (driverless) ‘pods’ start to be used at Heathrow’s terminal five, on a designated track. Round about the same time, trials of the Google Car started.
February 2015: Britain’s Department for Transport launched its Action Plan for creating a ‘pathway’ for driverless vehicles, to “amending national and international legislation to facilitate production and marketing of highly and fully automated vehicles. It is envisaged that national legislation can be amended by 2017 and there should be an aim to finalise amendments to international regulations by the end of 2018.”
February 2015: The start of ‘Driverless Vehicle Trials’ in Greenwich, Bristol, Milton Keynes and Coventry, involving teams of engineers testing electric, fully- automated pods potentially for use in cities.
July 2015: The Department for Transport launches its “code of practice” for automated vehicle technology testing. The government also set up the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (C-CAV).
January 2016: The European Union’s Platform for the Deployment of Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems published its final report in January 2016, saying “a coordinated action for the deployment of C-ITS in the EU is paramount: a unique legal and technical framework is essential and coordinated efforts to ensure quick uptake of C-ITS are requested.”
February 2016: The first funds out of the government’s dedicated £100m ‘intelligent mobility research’ fund are assigned to eight projects across the UK, including a project equipping a small length of Britain’s roads to be ready to test automated vehicles and a project aiming to accelerate the ‘development, market readiness and deployment’ of automated driving systems.
March 2016: In the government’s budget, it is announced that automated vehicles will be trialled on British motorways by the end of This is expected to include trials of several trucks travelling in platoons (connected to the lead truck using wireless technology).
April 2016: Highways England announces that its £150m innovation fund will include trials of connected and autonomous vehicle technologies and development of infrastructure standards on the strategic road network (motorways and A roads) to “futureproof” the network for these technologies.
April 2016: Six manufacturers of trucks take part in the European Truck Platooning Challenge showcasing platooning of large trucks on public roads heading for the Netherlands.
Trials of automated vehicles and connected vehicle technology concurrently take place in other countries around the world, including Sweden, Germany, Japan, and Singapore.
I think most would agree that change is indeed upon us.

8. how close are we to autonomous and connected vehicles?
The UK government is committed to introducing a legislative framework, within an ambitious timescale, to enable these vehicles to operate on public roads
It is envisaged that national legislation can be amended by 2017 and there should be an aim to finalise amendments to international regulations by the end of 2018
Today's discussion no longer revolves around whether the technology will deliver on its promise but whether people want what the technology can deliver and whether society and legislators are ready for this "revolution in auto mobility.” (Mercedes-Benz)

9. 2 significant issues remain unsolved …..
How could driverless technology ever predict not only the best course of action but the one that the fallible driver of the driven vehicle may take?
What is the ultimate goal of the driverless vehicle’s protective process? Only this week, Mercedes quoted in the Daily Mirror as having concluded that their safety system will protect the person in the car not the pedestrian, if the choice has to be taken in an unavoidable collision.
Is this the final word?

10. The end The end… Thank you Mike Carr, Public Affairs Advisor