This Daily Mail headline is so misleading for so many reasons.

I’ve driven 10s of thousands of miles using this technology over the past few years, so let me explain what’s going on because this type of government announcement and coverage is dangerous.
The Mail and government announcement refer to “self-driving” cars but it’s VERY limited. It only applies:

- to single lane driver assistance
- on motorways
- up to 37mph

A tiny percentage of driving.

It is NOT full self driving and it’s dangerous to suggest it is.
All of the above is legal now at the regular speed limits (not just 37mph).

The only thing that’s new is that you can legally be “hands free” as long as you can take control again within 10 seconds. Most cars will force you to hold the wheel anyway so this is meaningless.
Why is it dangerous? Because it suggests you don’t need to be alert for unexpected risks. The Mail even suggests “reading the internet” while driving 🤯

That’s not the point of lane assist tech. It’s used to take the stress out of long drives, just like cruise control does.
It’s also worth looking into the Mail’s line “despite US horror crashes and safety fears” in more detail.

Tesla releases a safety report every quarter so it’s easy to find out that cars in Autopilot are 8.6 times less likely to be involved in accidents! https://www.tesla.com/en_GB/VehicleSafetyReport
When accidents have happened, it’s often when drivers either purposefully misuse the tech or think that it can do more that it actually can. Why? Because they’ve read misleading media coverage of self-driving cars! These stories risk causing more accidents than the tech!
So what’s going on?

The government promised self driving cars on UK roads by 2021 in the 2017 Budget. This is their way of showing they’ve delivered but as @ruskin147 points out, it’s way short of what was promised.
The Mail loves a headline that shocks its audience, especially the older readers who fear the technology.

If the readers knew it wasn’t full self driving cars, only going very slow on motorways in one lane and that the tech was proven to be far safer they wouldn’t care.
What’s most frustrating about all this is that the tech is way ahead of regulation and the government could actually be enabling companies to improve genuine self driving on UK roads if they wanted. They are, in fact, blocking the progress to safer self driving not helping it.
You can follow @AndrewHaigh.
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