UK Government Calls for Automated Lane Keeping Technology

[Sparkeur]

It's a promising start...


Open consultation
Safe use of Automated Lane Keeping System on GB motorways: call for evidence ( UK Govt)


We are consulting on the use of Automated Lane Keeping System (ALKS) on Great Britain’s motorways, including:

• an overview of ALKS
• ensuring the safe use of ALKS
• questions around fair delegation and residual responsibility
• questions around the performance of other activities

ALKS is vehicle technology designed to control the lateral, left and right, and longitudinal, forward and back, movement of the vehicle for an extended period without further driver command. During such times, the system is in primary control of the vehicle, and performs the driving task instead of the driver, at low speeds on motorways.

Safe use of Automated Lane Keeping System on GB motorways: call for evidence

 

[Talllbloke]

Yeh saw an article on the guardian about it:
Self-driving cars could be allowed on UK motorways next year

Surely Teslas and several other makes already do all this stuff? Will we be confined to the slow lane from next year?

 

[GRiLLA]

Surely Teslas and several other makes already do all this stuff? Will we be confined to the slow lane from next year?

No, if you read the proposal this will take away the need for a driver to be paying attention. The system should monitor that they are awake but they can be watching a film, reading emails etc without looking at the road. The proposal is currently for use in traffic on motorways, <37mph, but it also suggests they would like to remove this limit later.

Glad I bought FSD when I did, it'll be getting much more expensive when it drives for you.

 

[Sparkeur]

Surely Teslas and several other makes already do all this stuff? Will we be confined to the slow lane from next year?

The full article seemed to suggest, 'up to 70 mph'. Given that's the national limit, I don't understand it either.

 

[Jason71]

No, if you read the proposal this will take away the need for a driver to be paying attention. The system should monitor that they are awake but they can be watching a film, reading emails etc without looking at the road. The proposal is currently for use in traffic on motorways, <37mph, but it also suggests they would like to remove this limit later.

Glad I bought FSD when I did, it'll be getting much more expensive when it drives for you.

So what does FSD add to a teslas ability to meet ALKS that Autopilot doesn't do?

 

[LongRanger]

I am sooo looking forward to seeing Mick in his battered old Peugeot being flummoxed by ALKS/FSD/AP vehicles so badly that he literally ping-pongs off every car in his vicinity, leaving a wake of strewn vehicles as they crash “safely”.

It’s gonna confuse the hell out of people that are nowhere near adopting this new tech, like a mass UK-wide video game gone badly wrong.

 

[UrbanSplash]

So what does FSD add to a teslas ability to meet ALKS that Autopilot doesn't do?

I don’t want to £6,800 check emails if I’m driving anyway.

look, this is nonsense. The government couldn’t even get a scooter scheme to work in the north east. Something that works perfectly well in other countries.

This ‘up to 70mph’ thing is also nonsense. You can’t overtake using this system, so you’re going to be constantly intervening to make progress. Unless you want to travel at 40 mph behind lorries and Mavis going to a Brewers Fayre.

Come back in 10 years. When we all won’t have our current Tesla’s. FSD is the ultimate vapourware for the foreseeable

 

[Gaz_]

I think what people are missing here is that this is separate from the Eurocrats, they are making decisions that mean the UK might actually get ahead of the curve rather than the Euro way of keeping everyone back to the slowest tech.

 

[CaptainBurrito]

I think what people are missing here is that this is separate from the Eurocrats, they are making decisions that mean the UK might actually get ahead of the curve rather than the Euro way of keeping everyone back to the slowest tech.

Thanks, Nige. Haven't heard the term 'Eurocrat' in a while...

The reality is that the UK is a very small market compared to the EU/EEA, so it's unlikely that vehicle regulations will diverge significantly. Otherwise, the extra approval/homologation processes would impose additional costs on manufacturers.

 

[Sparkeur]

I think what people are missing here is that this is separate from the Eurocrats, they are making decisions that mean the UK might actually get ahead of the curve rather than the Euro way of keeping everyone back to the slowest tech.

I am by no means saying this will be any better than the UK proposal...but they are trying:

France’s technology-minded president, Emmanuel Macron, appointed a senior official, Anne-Marie Idrac, to develop a national strategy for driverless mobility – including new laws, regulations for experiments and pilot projects, and cybersecurity and privacy issues.

The first legal proposals are expected by the end of this year and once approved will allow Level 3 and Level 4 passenger vehicles, driverless mass transit such as robotaxis, and automated delivery vehicles.

France pushes for 'highly automated' vehicles by 2022

Germany/EU:

However, the Vienna Convention still requires that each vehicle must have a driver. Thus, the operation of autonomously driven vehicles without drivers is not possible in the current situation. However, the working group is already working on road safety under the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), in a further expansion of the convention, so in the future autonomous systems could also be permitted.


VDA

 

[Jason71]

This ‘up to 70mph’ thing is also nonsense. You can’t overtake using this system, so you’re going to be constantly intervening to make progress. Unless you want to travel at 40 mph behind lorries and Mavis going to a Brewers Fayre.

Overtaking not needed. just get in the outside lane, turn it on, go to sleep. job done.
Just needs a way to wake you up when you get to your exit
This is supposed to be a new thing? pretty sure I've been stuck behind people testing this system my whole life.

 

[MrBadger]

So what does FSD add to a teslas ability to meet ALKS that Autopilot doesn't do?

Quite possibly Level 3.

So hands off, car is responsible for driving rather than hands on, person sitting in drivers seat is responsible for driving.

 

[phillcom3]

I was waiting for this thread to form after seeing it on BBC this morning

 

[phillcom3]

I don’t want to £6,800 check emails if I’m driving anyway.

look, this is nonsense. The government couldn’t even get a scooter scheme to work in the north east. Something that works perfectly well in other countries.

This ‘up to 70mph’ thing is also nonsense. You can’t overtake using this system, so you’re going to be constantly intervening to make progress. Unless you want to travel at 40 mph behind lorries and Mavis going to a Brewers Fayre.

Come back in 10 years. When we all won’t have our current Tesla’s. FSD is the ultimate vapourware for the foreseeable

Fsd tells you when you can overtake. What do you mean?

 

[NewbieT]

The current regs do make it clear you would be insured using such systems (as long as you don’t interfere with the software). So the question of ‘responsibility’ might not be as simple as this, would need to re-read.

 

[bungle_78]

I am sooo looking forward to seeing Mick in his battered old Peugeot being flummoxed by ALKS/FSD/AP vehicles so badly that he literally ping-pongs off every car in his vicinity, leaving a wake of strewn vehicles as they crash “safely”.

It’s gonna confuse the hell out of people that are nowhere near adopting this new tech, like a mass UK-wide video game gone badly wrong.

Mick will be fine. He’s had automatic middle lane holding technology in his Peugeot for years.

 

[Rustybkts]

I simply wish we would stop spending untold millions (billions?) with all the roadwork hassle removing the hard shoulder just so motorways can carry the very poor description "Smart Motorway".
They are not and never will be.
What is the range of the radar on a Tesla as various accident video's I have seen would suggest it cannot register a stationary hazard at motorway speeds.

 

[Durzel]

How about get the UNECE stuff sorted first so all of the FSD tech isn't completely crippled anyway.

 

[ringi]

This ‘up to 70mph’ thing is also nonsense

Many people have commutes on moterways that never get as fast as 70mph. Also of cars are being driven automatically at 70mph it could not a lot of the spreading and hence reduce CO2.

The reality is that the UK is a very small market compared to the EU/EEA, so it's unlikely that vehicle regulations will diverge significantly

If a UK regulation allows something the US does and is switchable in software, then I can see regulations diverging. For example moterway in the UK are much better quality then much of the sorthen EU, so we don't need systems to be able to cope with their "moterways".

 

[Tony Hoyle]

It really doesn't relate to tesla at all.. it's level 3 autonomy up to 40mph on motorways (or I guess suitably partitioned A roads). Whereas previously we'd have just waved the EU regs into law we have to implement it ourselves now, hence this consultation. I don't see the government varying from the text of WP29 any time soon, though.. we're frequently the ones pushing for more restrictions in UNECE.

Useful for companies wanting to test level 3 tech as it gives them a legal framework with which to do so... but not really practical for a full rollout - that will require further time.