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reports

A glimpse into the near-future of autonomous road transport

The market for CAVs in the UK is forecast to be worth £41.7bn in 2035. But the route to market and achieving positive impact is not straightforward.

March 31, 2021

A majority of this value is delivered by CAVs that are that are fully responsible for driving within specified environments, known as Level 4 CAVs (L4 CAV). Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) that are fully self-driving are forecast to be important for delivering both economic and environmental impacts to the UK.

Yet to achieve full potential some careful navigation of their development is required. Connected Places Catapult has been supporting the research and development ecosystem for Connected Autonomous Systems, and its new report highlights the importance of considering the diversity of fully self-driving vehicles. It also presents an approach for accelerating their delivery to market and maximising their impact potential.

There are several different types L4 CAV, each having differences in :

The economic, environmental, and social impacts they create
The challenges to be overcome by their route to marker

This report identifies and discusses different types of L4 CAV and presents opportunity areas for developing the CAV market. This includes identifying:

The key steps required to bring a CAV product to market and the associated barriers.
The role and relationship of the CAV ecosystem that supports the development and delivery of CAVs to market.

The report concludes with advice on how to guide the CAV market on a route that accelerates industry development and achieve positive environmental and societal impacts. This involves considering the investments and impacts directly associated with bringing each type of L4 CAV to market. A further important factor to recognise is contribution they make to developing the CAV ecosystem which supports the future delivery of more capable and impactful CAVs in the marketplace.

This work was built upon CPC’s past experiences delivering a range of CAV projects that are referenced in the report.