Leading UK expert on driverless vehicles, Prof Nick Reed has won the hashtag#Research category at the inaugural Self-Driving Industry Awards, organised by Cars Of The Future.

This recognition of his Rees Jeffreys Road Fund-supported project through his company Reed Mobility, entitled “Self-Driving But Guided By People: How to make automated vehicles ethical”.

The report highlights the importance of engaging with communities that will be affected by the deployment of self-driving vehicles and working to build their trust in the technology – something that has been brought into sharp focus by the recent incident involving a Cruise automated vehicle in San Francisco.

Prof Reed said “This project would not have happened without the inputs from partners DG Cities, TRL / Smart Mobility Living Lab: London, April Six and Humanising Autonomy – and the insightful guidance from the advisory panel chaired by John McDermid.

“Thanks so much for your respective contributions. Reiterating my acceptance speech, I also want to thank the people who participated in the survey and workshops for the project. If self-driving vehicles are not meeting their needs and expectations then this technology will not deliver the safety, accessibility and efficiency benefits that we believe might be achievable. Our research showed that it will not be possible to please all of the people all of the time!”

You can hear more about the research on this Highways Voices podcast. His contribution starts around 3m15s.

(Picture – Nick Reed LinkedIn)