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UK Invites Public Input as Self-Driving Taxis Gear Up for Real-World Launch
Nissan previously tested a fleet of modified Leafs in the UK, covering 16,000 miles in eight yearsNew consultation will form basis of a pilot scheme allowing taxi firms to run unsupervised AVs
The government has launched a consultation on the future of autonomous vehicles, with a view to putting self-driving taxis and buses on the road early next year.
It has invited the public and industry to provide their views on issues such as how to allow firms to run autonomous taxis, considering what safeguards should be put in place if permits need to be withdrawn. It will also call for statements on how to ensure autonomous taxi services are accessible to those who cannot drive, such as the elderly and disabled.
This will inform a pilot scheme for taxi companies to use autonomous vehicles in the UK, without a human back-up to take control if the car makes an error. A wider rollout is planned for mid-2027, when the Automated Vehicles Act comes into force.
The government claims the adoption of autonomous vehicles by taxi firms will create 38,000 jobs, though it is unclear whether that figure takes into account job losses as human drivers are replaced by technology.
“Self-driving vehicles are one of the most exciting opportunities to improve transport for so many people, especially those in rural areas or unable to drive,” said Lilian Greenwood, minister for the future of roads. “We want to work with passengers and industry to make this new form of transport safe and accessible, as we take our next steps towards adoption.”
Autonomous vehicles were first allowed to be tested on public roads across the UK in 2015, and several manufacturers have since tested the technology here. Among the most notable firms has been Nissan, which in March ended trials of a modified fleet of Leaf EVs after eight years. Nissan’s engineering chief, David Moss, called the tests “tremendously successful”, with the cars having covered 16,000 miles across motorways, town centres, residential streets and countryside lanes with no recorded accidents.
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Lamborghini Temerario Redefines Fun with Electrified Power and Playful Performance
Smaller Lamborghini puts on size, muscle - and three electric motors - and aims for playfulness as well as power Unlike its various predecessors, Lamborghini’s new ‘junior’ supercar - the Lamborghini Temerario - can’t give you ten cylinders; but it is offering 10,000rpm instead.Being what Sant’Agata calls a ‘High Performance Electrified Vehicle’, or HPEV for short (that’s a PHEV that could also be an early-round answer on ITV’s The 1% Club), it can do electric-only running, of course. Just like its bigger brother the Revuelto did, it’s taken very sizable leaps on power and outright performance; as well as smaller ones on outright size and passenger space, all of which we’ll come to.But most of all, and despite having now hybridised the pair of them, Lamborghini wants the Temerario to have a different character than the bigger, faster, more serious Revuelto. It wants this car to be fun. Playful, rebellious; and a bit of a tearaway. And, wouldn’t you know it - as far as about ten laps of the Estoril circuit can teach you, at any rate - that’s what it would seem to be.This is precisely the kind of Huracan replacement you might come up with, then, having learned - after introducing STO, Tecnica and Sterrato derivatives of that last car since 2021 - that adding more and more power and revs and carbonfibre bodywork isn’t the only route to enriching the appeal of a mid-engined exotic sports car. Or, to put it another way, that you can use the latest asymmetrical electric torque-vectoring technology in a different way than it was executed on the Revuelto: to create even more accessible limit-handling appeal, and to make something really compelling to drive on track at less than maximum-attack pace.
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