Transport Committee launches 'Motoring of the future' inquiry

The Transport Committee is launching an inquiry on motoring of the future.

The Government launched the inquiry to investigate how they can address developments in motoring technology, notably alternative fuels, safety improvements and driver aids.

The Committee is especially interested in the following questions:

• Whether the Government has articulated a clear strategy for motoring?
• How effective are the steps the Government is taking to support technological development in motoring and what actions it should be taking to develop the necessary financial and legal frameworks?
• How effective the Government has been at setting its priorities for investment in research and development in motoring, and what further actions it needs to take?
• Whether current research and development in, for example, alternative fuels, safety systems or driver aids, will make a significant impact on mass-market vehicles by 2040, and how likely are changes that would make motoring of the future profoundly different from motoring today?
• How trends in motoring and patterns of vehicle ownership might shape transport planning, policy making and provision?
• Whether current transport planning, policy making and provision are taking likely future developments into account and how planning, policy making and provision might need to change in the future?
• What evidence there is to show that the Government is co-ordinating its policy making with other Governments and the European Union to achieve joined-up transport outcomes and to establish universal standards?
• What role the Government has in ensuring that the UK has the necessary infrastructure—for example refuelling networks or vehicle-to-infrastructure data networks—to facilitate motoring of the future?
• What steps the Government is taking to help UK business exploit new motoring technologies and whether there is scope for it to do more?
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Louise Ellman, Chair of the House of Commons Transport Committee said, “This inquiry comes at an exciting time in the development of new motoring technology: driverless cars, alternative fuels and other advances have huge potential to transform driving and our wider transport system. We will examine how this technology could make driving safer, more efficient and more enjoyable.

"We will consider the barriers that may prevent new technology reaching UK roads as quickly and cheaply as possible; and how the Government can support efforts to make motoring of the future a reality.”

Written submissions for the inquiry should be sent to the Transport Committee inquiry page.