The British Standards Institution has teamed up with the Department for Transport, the Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles, Innovate UK and self-driving hub Zenzic to develop industry standards for autonomous vehicles.

The work will look at standardisation in areas such as safety, advanced testing, data, cyber security, CAV infrastructure, human factors & the deployment of AV services

Intended to help accelerate the successful roll-out of self-driving cars in the UK while ensuring user safety, the standards will cover the safety, testing and deployment of all connected and automated vehicles (CAV). Areas covered all include cyber security, CAV infrastructure, human factors and the deployment of automated vehicle services.

The work is being backed up by an advisory board for the standards made up of a cross-section of automotive research and testing houses, local authorities and highways regulators, insurers, software and design companies and trade associations.

The first deliverables from the new programme will be two Publicly Available Specifications: PAS 1880 and PAS 1881, relating to safety of automated vehicle development and testing.  These are scheduled to be published in early 2020.

Dr Scott Steedman, director of standards at BSI, said: “Successful deployment of automated vehicles in the UK depends on overcoming a wide range of challenges in infrastructure, public safety and changes to traditional automotive manufacturing, particularly in relation to software, sensors and new methods of validation and testing. A set of strong, widely accepted standards will cement the UK’s global lead in this space and promote greater trust in these technologies. This important programme of work will add to our existing portfolio of innovative standards in areas such as automotive cyber security, robot ethics and smart cities.”