Today, WMG at the University of Warwick has launched Partners in Automated Learning for Vehicles UK (PAVE UK) with the Department for Business and Trade, the Department for Transport, the Center for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), and Transport for West Midlands, as its founding partners.
The PAVE UK initiative aims to build public confidence in autonomous driving technology through a program of education and engagement, supporting the UK Government's ambition to deploy autonomous vehicles safely on the road and its aim to make the UK a leader in artificial intelligence (AI).
PAVE UK is the country's first NGO to advocate and deliver public education and motor vehicle sharing programmes. It was launched today at the Royal Automobile Club in London, with Anthony Brown MP (Minister for Technology and Decarbonisation) and Professor Sarah Sharples (Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Transport) as keynote speakers. More than 100 technology developers, safety campaign groups, regulators, innovators and industry leaders discussed how to ensure public engagement in the autonomous driving technology journey and how to accurately communicate autonomous vehicle safety messages to various stakeholders in society.
Professor Siddhartha Khastgir, Head of Verification and Validation at WMG at the University of Warwick, said: “At WMG, we strive to enhance the safety of autonomous driving technology and ensure it is safe to operate on the roads. With a people-first approach, the public should be paramount in the safety conversation and part of the journey during the development and deployment of autonomous vehicles on UK roads.
“PAVE UK will translate technical information into clear, comprehensive and accurate messages to help communicate safety to the public in a comprehensive and accessible way. Future technology users and other road users will be equipped with knowledge of the benefits and limitations of this new transport technology. PAVE UK will also bring together the autonomous driving ecosystem to address the challenges technology, speaking honestly and accurately about the system's capabilities and limitations, and encouraging innovators to put the public at the heart of it.
PAVE UK will work closely with the entire Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) ecosystem in the UK, to implement education and engagement programmes, such as research-based educational material packs, school outreach activities, community outreach, online video library, webinars, and Online tutorial. The program will be delivered by WMG at the University of Warwick.
Nusrat Ghani, Minister of Industry and Economic Security, said: “The UK automotive sector is at the forefront of exploiting innovative new technologies. These have the potential to create jobs, grow the economy and accelerate how we get to net zero.
“This government has shown time and again that we are committed to creating the right conditions to advance advanced manufacturing in the UK, and the PAVE UK initiative will help establish the UK as a world leader in autonomous driving technology.”
Minister for Technology and Decarbonisation Anthony Browne said: “Autonomous vehicles have the potential to transform our transport sector, and PAVE UK will be a big part of this by raising awareness and boosting confidence in people across the country. In the meantime, we are making sure these vehicles are safe for use on our roads. Puts The Motor Vehicles Bill has stringent safety standards, ensuring that this country is a place where companies can develop and deploy their cutting-edge technologies.
Note to editors
Motor vehicle invoice: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3506
Organizations and schools wishing to take part in the programs can contact PAVEUK@warwick.ac.uk.
Smart vehicles are changing the future of transportation mobility and providing easier and more inclusive transportation options to the public.
Emerging Connected and Automated Mobility (CAM) technology is at the heart of UK transport innovation. It could save around 4,000 lives, prevent 60,000 serious road accidents, and provide more than £65 billion in economic benefits annually to the country. To deploy CAM technology on the road, its safety must be proven.
Additional quotes:
Tara Andringa, CEO of PAVE UK, said:
“When PAVE was founded in 2019, it was a bet on the power of knowledge: we believed that if the public understood the realities of autonomous vehicles, we would see greater public confidence in this incredibly promising technology. Our campaign seeks to demystify autonomous vehicles – to explain how The work of technology – and to help the public understand how these technologies can help improve the safety, efficiency and sustainability of our transportation system.
“While countries and regions have adopted different regulatory approaches to automated vehicles, the challenge of automated vehicle education is global in nature. Given the tremendous leadership from the UK both in its approach to automated vehicle policy and in civic engagement with the technology, we are very excited about the influential role it will play.” PAVE UK in Public Education Leadership. “The PAVE ecosystem is thrilled to be launching PAVE UK, and we will work together to build an engagement campaign that will create a model for spacecraft education around the world.”
About WMG
WMG is a world-leading research and education group, transforming organizations and driving innovation through a unique combination of collaborative research and development and pioneering education programmes.
As an international role model for successful partnerships between academia, public and private sectors, WMG advances national and global developments in applied science, technology and engineering, to achieve real impact on economic growth, society and the environment.
WMG's educational programs focus on lifelong learning for the brightest talents, from WMG Academies for Young Engineers, apprenticeships, undergraduate and graduate studies, to professional programmes.
An academic department of the University of Warwick, and the HVM Catapult Centre, WMG was founded by the late Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharya in 1980 to help revitalize UK manufacturing and improve competitiveness through innovation and skills development.
About Beef UK
PAVE UK aims to bring the conversation about automated vehicles (AVs) to the public so that future users and developers of the technology can play a part in shaping our future.
By arranging education and engagement programs around autonomous vehicles, our goal is to increase public awareness of the technology's capabilities and limitations and build societal acceptance and confidence in this new transportation innovation. We also aim to develop the right user behavior to promote the safe deployment of autonomous vehicles.
We firmly believe that by providing the public with knowledge of CAM technology fully and transparently, we can then realize the potential benefits of this technology.
Media Contact:
Annie Slaine
Communications Officer (Science)
Annie.Slinn@warwick.ac.uk
Gabe Lau
Marketing and Communications Officer at WMG (Verification and Verification Research Group)
Gabby. lau@warwick.ac.uk
February 21, 2024
