More than half of motorists will not want to own a private car a decade from now due to the expected rise of self driving technology and so called ‘mobility as a service’, a survey has found.

 

Professional services firm KPMG said that this was the view of 74% of UK automotive sector executives.

 

“The UK is particularly suited to the early adoption of self driving cars consumed as a service,” said KPMG’s UK head of automotive John Leech.

 

“Our greenbelt policy has created a relatively dense urban population which, when coupled with our high fuel prices, means that so-called ‘robot taxis’ offer a greater cost saving to the UK public, compared to European or North American markets.

 

“I believe robot taxis will revolutionise UK urban transportation in the second half of the next decade.”

 

But new predictions released by the Department for Transport last week cast doubt on the short term benefits of autonomous vehicles. A report compiled by Atkins indicates that connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) will cause a 0.9% increase in delays on the strategic road network when they comprise 25% of the overall vehicle fleet.

 

However as the penetration of CAV technology increases the congestion and journey time benefits are expected to amplify, the figures – gathered using microsimulation software – suggest.

 

Commenting on the DfT report RAC Foundation director Steve Gooding said: “After another year of record car sales there are around 32 million conventional cars on the UK’s roads – as driverless cars come in traffic flow could initially get worse rather than better, potentially for many years.

 

“Much will depend on how an autonomous cars’ parameters are set and just how defensively these vehicles will be programmed to drive.”

 

(Photo: DfT)