A survey conducted by road safety charity IAM RoadSmart has found that its members are increasingly disillusioned with the state of the roads in the UK – and feel the Government is not doing nearly enough to tackle the problem.
The survey of more than 7,000 IAM RoadSmart members found that the majority think that our roads have become much worse in recent years, that there are many more potholes than ever before, and that they have to swerve to avoid potholes on every journey and 47% – over 3,400 respondents – say they have experienced damage to their car, commercial vehicle, motorbike or bicycle or personal injury as a result of hitting a pothole.
The fleet industry needs stronger links to government in the longer term to avoid a repeat of the current situation in which the sector finds itself, says Meridian Vehicle Solutions.
Phil Jerome, managing director at the medium term rental specialist, pointed out that current confusion around a wide range of issues from WLTP and benefit in kind taxation to the future role of diesel and electric vehicles are all surrounded by uncertainty and added, “A lot of these could very possibly have been avoided with better planning surrounding the introduction of new rules or better dialogue about policy, both on the part of government and the fleet industry itself.”
Well over half (55%) of UK motorists would not consider purchasing an autonomous vehicle, with scepticism around safety and technology causing the biggest concerns, according to the Britain Under the Bonnet report from Close Brothers Motor Finance. Just a fifth (20%) would consider buying a car with partial or total self-driving features.
Ahead of new guidelines being introduced by the government this year, which will allow autonomous vehicles to be tested without a human for the first time in the UK, the report found that UK motorists have major concerns and one in five (19%) do not trust the technology, and over a quarter (26%) would need to see more evidence in relation to safety before ever considering one, while 19%) also said they simply don’t like the idea of them.
A 500 Million dollar investment by Toyota will be made into Uber Technologies.
The ride hailing firm is looking into providing autonomous cars in the near future where legislation allows them to operate.