Connected and Autonomous Vehicles: Priorities for Policy and Planning

Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) is a paradigm-shifting mobility technology that will redefine the urban landscapes of the future by employing the immense capabilities of Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and wireless connectivity. Despite great technological breakthroughs orchestrated by the automotive industry and millions of autopiloted road miles traveled in segregated environments and living lab conditions the road to a full-scale implementation is significantly longer and harder that many might anticipate. This is because CAVs is not a simple techno-fix but rather a complex piece of a diverse socio-technical transition to an unprecedented smart mobility paradigm that still needs to prioritize people over machines. Policy and planning need to be seriously reviewed, redesigned and rebranded to incorporate effectively CAVs before these can fulfill their destiny as genuine game-changers in hopefully improving the standard of mobility provision. This paper provides a roadmap of the opportunities and challenges that reflect and affect the policy and planning of CAVs highlighting 10 priority areas namely: technology; legislation; crisis and employment ethics; infrastructure and land use; integration; traffic safety; cyber security and privacy; business models; traffic congestion and travel behavior; and finally acceptability, trust and customer readiness.