SMMT Connected 2019
Minister of State for Universities and Science, Chris Skidmore speech at the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders conference.
Thank you Justin (Webb) for that introduction. For many years, Justin was the BBC’s North America Editor.
And I’d like to start today with a story about the American designer Norman Bel Geddes.
In his 1940 book ‘Magic Motorways’ Bel Geddes listed the many automotive breakthroughs made in the previous 30 years.
Electric headlights, automatic wipers shatterproof windscreens, four-wheel brakes puncture-proof tyres and so many more. Yet – he argued – that in 30 years there was one part of the car which had not improved. Arguably the most important part.
The driver.
In Bel Geddes’ own words: “His eyesight is no better… …he reacts no faster, he doesn’t think any better… …he is just as absent-minded”.
Yet Bel Geddes believed there was a solution. Looking forward 20 years, he predicted that, I quote:
The cars of 1960 and the highways on which they drive will have in them devices which will correct the faults of human beings as drivers. They will prevent the driver from committing errors.
They will prevent him turning out into traffic except when he should. They will make it possible for him to proceed at full speed through dense fog.
Of course, self-driving cars weren’t widespread by the 1960s.
And even when I was born in the ‘80s there was no sign of them!
But my point today is that this world of science fiction which Bel Geddes predicted 80 years ago is much closer than we think.
The phone in your pocket offers an interesting analogy. It wasn’t that long ago that we were all happily playing Snake on our Nokia 3310s.
Yet today, we have in our pockets a device with which we can video message anyone else on the planet at a moment’s notice.
But because this has come about gradually through the accumulation of many small changes’ evolution rather than revolution we often take the end product for granted.
I think there’s a similar situation with today’s cars. Every new car sold off a UK forecourt is more connected than the last.
With everything from satellite navigation, to cruise control automatic braking, keyless access and in-car Wi-Fi.
Smart motorways are keeping traffic flowing while sensors in parking bays are helping people find spaces faster.
And new technologies which can limit a driver’s speed and change traffic lights when an ambulance approaches are just around the corner.
Yet the advent of self-driving cars will not simply be an aggregation of what we already have.
As the SMMT’s ‘Connected Report’ showed this morning it will have far reaching implications for how we live our lives.
Imagine if I told you that a pharmaceutical company had developed a new drug which could save the lives of well over a million people a year. Well, self-driving vehicles have the potential to do exactly that.
By eliminating road deaths caused by human error they could save the vast majority of the 1.25 million people killed on the world’s roads every single year.
Self-driving vehicles will also mark a shift from driving as a ‘skill’ to mobility as a ‘right’.
Opening up travel to the disabled, the elderly or those simply too young to drive.
While those who currently drive to work could use their commute however they want - from working, to sleeping, to catching up on their favourite Brexit debates!
So how can we seize these benefits?
Well, while self-driving vehicles have pride of place in our Industrial Strategy through our ‘Future of Mobility’ Grand Challenge, government cannot ‘create’ this future alone.
We will need everyone in this room, automotive manufacturers, suppliers, insurers, AI companies, cybersecurity experts, telecoms firms, lawyers and local councils, to come together to make this a reality.
Personally, I am optimistic, because I have seen the rate of progress first-hand.
You might have seen the blue Ford Mondeo outside the front entrance: a self-driving car belonging to Oxbotica, whose Chief Executive, Graeme Smith is here today.
What Oxbotica are doing, really is astounding.
They’ve created a camera-based system which can remember the places it has been before - wherever, whenever, whatever the weather.
Running a trial with Ocado in central London which delivered groceries autonomously for two weeks with zero interventions from a human.
And as we look to build on achievements like these collaboration will be crucial. The National Automotive Innovation Centre at the University of Warwick, is a great example of this.
The centre is proof-positive that big firms are not the enemies of innovation.
Without Jaguar Land-Rover the project simply would not have happened.
Walk into the building and you’ll see big firms working with small ones to help them prosper.
University researchers working with start-ups to bring their ideas to life. Engineers teaching apprentices new skills.
And different sectors working together on a new model of mobility.
Indeed, so many big manufacturers are recognising that no company or country can create this technology alone.
Ford and Volkswagen, both in the room today, are teaming up to work on self-driving vehicle research.
While Daimler and BMW are putting a billion euros into schemes like their car-sharing and ride-hailing business – Share Now.
In the UK we can’t meet this unprecedented global co-operation with unprecedented global isolation.
Of course, we could build a self-driving vehicle that would be strictly ‘British’ in every sense, from the ideas, skills and parts which created it, to the investment that funded it.
But we know from experience that when we combine the best from around the world with our own strengths, we can achieve even more.
I know you have already heard from Agustin Martin from Toyota Connected Europe this morning.
A Spaniard, working for a Japanese company which – last year - launched their European tech start-up here in London, to have access to some of the best data scientists and software developers anywhere in the world.
And later this year – through our Industrial Strategy - we will support other Japanese firms here today like Nissan and Horiba Mira as they work with our universities, Highways England and the Connected Places Catapult, to attempt the most complex autonomously-controlled car journey ever undertaken in the UK.
And while investment and innovation have continued, I know that uncertainties around Brexit have caused particular concerns for the automotive sector.
Parliament, and the Prime Minister, have now both made clear that we cannot leave the EU without a deal.
We now have a short period of time to seek consensus about what kind of deal would be acceptable to parliament and the EU.
But I believe that – whatever form it eventually takes - it must be one which protects the supply chains preferential trading relationships, and common regulatory standards, that you rely on today, and which will make possible the vehicles of the future.
Indeed – over the last 5 years, government and industry have committed more than £400 million in world-leading R&D and testbed infrastructure.
But we also need to be agile - making sure regulation moves in lockstep with innovation.
In July last year parliament passed an Act setting out a new framework for motor insurance for self-driving vehicles.
A world first. And innovation in this area is not slowing down.
Oxbotica, for example, are writing insurance into their software.
Testing self-driving vehicles which send data to their digital insurance policy which then tells the vehicle – in real time…what to do in a given situation.
An insurance policy not as a piece of paper you put in a drawer, but something which can control your vehicle, second by second, metre by metre.
And with technology changing faster than ever, our Regulators’ Pioneer Fund will help Britain’s regulators keep up across a number of areas.
Supporting projects including an ‘innovation lab’ to tackle regulatory challenges facing autonomous ships and smart shipping.
And a ‘regulatory sandbox’ to help develop regulatory policies for innovations, like flying taxis and automated systems.
Ladies and gentlemen, If you ask people on the street outside, most won’t have seen a self-driving car…let alone travel in one.
But make no mistake. The world that Bel Geddes described is taking shape.
And we have all the elements required to bring this to fruition.
Researchers with creativity and ideas.
Investors with capital and an eye for a good deal.
Start-ups ready to try new things.
Big players able to produce at scale.
And a government ready and willing to use its powers to regulate, convene or invest.
We are already doing much more than people imagine and together, we can go further than even we can imagine.
Thank you for inviting me here today.