Proposals to include new road technology to transmit live-travel information to drivers could bring genuine benefits for fleets, says Arval.

New road tech could bring ‘genuinely useful’ fleet benefits

According to reports, the Government is planning to install fibre optic cables under motorways to provide data connected cars and vans from 2020, including possible advice on changes of speed limits and accidents ahead.

Jon Friedenthal, consultant at Arval, said: “For fleets, such advances are genuinely useful when it comes to making journeys more efficient and avoiding accidents. It is a move that should be welcomed.”

He added that the technology was likely to act as part of a series of stepping stones towards full autonomy.

“There are some signs that full vehicle autonomy remains something closer to an aspiration than a practical solution, as some recent announcements show. In the meantime, what we will have is the adoption of a range of technologies emerging in vehicles such as lane departure and correction, blind spot detection, automatic braking and radar cruise – all of which are likely to become fairly widespread in the near future, especially thanks to their recent backing by NCAP.

“The investments made in improving the technology in the roads themselves are equally important. Certainly, we expect to see fleets introducing these new developments that are on the horizon in some form.”

Earlier this month, [v]Highways England also revealed plans to transform some of the UK’s busiest A-roads into “expressway corridors” while more of our motorways will be turned into smart motorways and highways will get increased EV charging facilities. The new report on proposals for the Strategic Road Network (SRN) is currently out for consultation.