News

There is a lot of scepticism about driverless cars. Many people say they wouldn’t trust them and are concerned at sharing the roads with them. A strange view considering statistics show 95% of accidents are caused by driver error and there are currently around 4,000 accidents per week in the UK that cause injury.

Given the chance to continue to share the road with drivers who cause so much carnage (around 550 injuries and 5 deaths every day) or, a driverless car controlled by a computer, it seems we are happier to put our trust in drivers. However, previous surveys of drivers have shown the majority when asked think their driving standard is above average, while the majority of those same drivers when asked about other drivers they share the road with said they thought the standard of driving was poor and other drivers need training. These statistics are probably the exact reason we have the problems we do on our roads.
 
While seeing this advance in technology as something to worry about and not trust, it is also interesting to see how many of those same sceptics are happy to book their holidays and get on an aeroplane, which is more than capable of getting them there and back by computer, to fly off to the sun.
 
Although tests are currently in progress with driverless cars, and the government are reported to be investing £19 million into advancing trials on the technology, it is not expected that they will be introduced as a serious option in the next decade.
 
Perhaps for now all drivers need to reflect on their skills and interaction with other road users and make a concerted effort to get those worrying road casualty figures down. That way we can all be as safe as we should be with the technology we currently have. Those who drive for work fall into a higher risk group of drivers, therefore particular attention to your driving is needed if your journey is work related.

Many issues that feature in our news section may be of concern to you as an employer if you employ company drivers. It is important that you, as a company, are fully compliant with your responsibilities to those employees.

Fleetrisk24 Ltd specialises in Work Related Road Safety and Workplace Transport Safety and can help you put policies and processes in place to address your transport health and safety requirements.