Autonomous Vehicles: Hype or Hope?

By David Kelly, our Head of Policy and Campaigns 

You cannot fail to have noticed the growing buzz around Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) in the UK. The number of politicians, journalists and investors talking up the new technology is only increasing, while firms and transport authorities are launching new tests and trials with great fanfare.

The Hype

‘Driverless buses’ started crossing Scotland’s iconic Forth Road Bridge in 2023 as part of a pilot (which ended in 2025 due to a lack of passengers), shortly followed by a similar service in an innovation district near Oxford. Now, before the end of 2026, there could be ‘driverless taxis’ on the streets of London.

Waymo (a subsidiary of Alphabet, the gargantuan parent company of Google) is preparing to launch the service in the UK’s biggest city in the coming months, pending testing and UK Government approval ahead of a complex real-world trial.

Ministers are hailing this news as a first step to ‘create up to 38,000 jobs and unlock an industry worth £42 billion to the UK economy by 2035’. It has been consulting on a new regulatory framework for a technology which, it says, will contribute to ‘strengthening road safety and improving accessible transport options… especially for disabled people, older people and vulnerable groups’.

We welcome this commitment, because it is essential that appropriate safeguards, mitigations and legal protections are in place to ensure any deployment of AVs in the UK is safe and equitable.

This is the latest step in a longer journey. The UK Government established the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV), which is now part of the Department for Transport (DfT), back in 2015. In 2017, the then-Conservative administration announced that it wanted to see ‘fully self-driving cars, without a human operator, on UK roads by 2021’. Its Budget contained big predictions of economic returns, which have so far yet to materialise.

The promotion of AVs and AV-related investments into the UK has been largely led by what is now the Department for Business and Trade, suggesting that it has been generally viewed by government through an economic lens, rather than a transport one. Do Ministers now see AVs as an economic opportunity to boost business growth or as a social tool to make our transport system more accessible, equitable and sustainable?

Yet, safety and accessibility are a big part of the pitch for AVs – and a real part of the potential benefits.

The Hope

Could driverless buses, cars, taxis and minibuses ultimately make our streets safer? According to Brake, the road safety charity, AVs ‘have the potential to eliminate human error from driving’, which is a factor in 9 out of 10 crashes on UK roads.

Tech companies say that the reason they exist is to deploy and develop technology to improve passenger safety. Imagine: no distracted drivers, no drunk drivers, no bad drivers – just Artificial Intelligence (AI) helping you to get you where you need to be, seamlessly and safely.

Could driverless taxis also offer a positive solution for women facing gender-based harassment or violence? Or for disabled people facing abuse or discrimination from taxi and Private Hire Vehicle (PHV) drivers? (But, equally, would these same passengers feel any safer on a driverless bus?)

Research by Transport Scotland found that almost all female study participants reported that they ‘very often’ or ‘always’ felt unsafe when using public transport. Meanwhile, over a quarter of disabled people in England said they had recently been refused access when trying to travel by taxi, according to Transport for All.

In our response to DfT’s call for evidence, we argued that accessibility is fundamental and must be embedded within the AVs regulatory framework. Co-design with disabled people, Disabled Peoples’ Organisations (DPOs) and Community Transport operators must be mandatory.

The Human Element

It is striking that the anticipated benefits of AVs result from eliminating or minimising the human element in transport delivery, as workers who may make mistakes or cause harm are replaced by machines that (it is claimed, at least) will not. This raises profound questions about the future of our sector and our wider transport system.

It is foreseeable that some community-owned transport services could potentially be operated by AVs in the future. (Perhaps scheduled bus services in areas where driver shortages are a major barrier?) Albeit it is a remote prospect today, not least for financial reasons. But there are many more which simply never will be and never should be.

Research by the CCAV has confirmed that 21 out of 66 driver roles are ‘very challenging’ or ‘challenging’ to ‘fulfil without a driver or onboard attendant’, such as supporting passengers to board and alight safely from the vehicle. These driver roles are at the heart of Community Transport and why we exist.

Human connection, empathy and support are essential to and indivisible from the operational delivery and social purpose of so many of our sector’s services. AVs cannot support a disabled child to have a safe, smooth and happy journey like a PATS passenger assistant. AVs cannot help an older person to get to a hospital appointment in peace and dignity like a Community Transport volunteer driver. AVs cannot do all this while tackling loneliness, strengthening social ties and building bridges across generations at the same time.

Getting the Basics Right

The UK Government should be realistic about the potential advantages (as well as cognisant of the potential disadvantages and unintended consequences) of AVs. We are clear that we must take a careful and proportionate approach.

As new technologies emerge, no matter how shiny or exciting, it is critical that we are not distracted from getting the basics right. Our principal focus should remain on making the public, community and shared transport services we already have as accessible, affordable and attractive as possible for everyone.

Learn More

You can click here to download our response to DfT’s call for evidence.

If you’d like to share your thoughts, email policy@ctauk.org.