Event Details

Professor Roger Kemp, a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, will be delivering a talk all about autonomous vehicles. This lecture is the second in this year’s Science and Technology ‘Impact’ Lecture Series.

In this lecture ‘Do you want your car to be driven by a computer,’ Professor Roger Kemp will explore the increasing enthusiasm for autonomous vehicles.

In the last 5 years, there has been increasing enthusiasm for autonomous vehicles (AVs). The claimed benefits include energy consumption, efficient use of infrastructure, fewer accidents and mobility for all. Last year, the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, told the BBC: ‘It will happen, I can promise you. It is happening already ... It is going to revolutionise our lives, it is going to revolutionise the way we work.’

However, evidence shows that managing safety is more difficult than many had hoped. There are also questions over AVs energy use and their effects on congestion. And many people, already worried that US “tech” companies like Google already know too much about our lives, question whether we want them also to have detailed inventories of everywhere we go.