"Todays Queen's Speech reinforces the need for the UK to continue investing, both financially and logistically, in order to remain at the cutting edge of new vehicle technology - from propulsion systems to autonomous vehicles." commented Phil Harrold, automotive partner at PwC, about the Queen's speech, which focussed heavily on the digital economy and technology.

"In recent years we've seen a gentle creeping of transport automation, with UK engineering driving much of this capability. However  the real road test will be persuading the general public to readily accept even more car or van autonomy, and for developers, manufacturers and the Government to robustly respond to any safety concerns consumers may have.  There are precedents they can lean on - after all, who would have thought 10 or 15 years ago that we'd readily travel on driverless trains at the airport?

"Ultimately, for autonomous consumer transport modes to succeed, it's vital that 'perfection' isn't set as the default benchmark during the highway test phases or on roll-out - we don't expect this of other drivers on the road - and that what is aimed for is a realistic and marked improvement on human fallibility levels."