In a landmark address, the Department for Transport’s head of road infrastructure technology, Darren Capes, has signalled the future direction of the Government's approach to connected vehicles - based around use cases and defined service levels.
Speaking at the LCRIG Strictly Highways event, Mr Capes revealed that the DfT is currently developing a Digital Vehicle Services Framework, which would eventually set service levels for connected data services to shape UK’s digital roads future.
He explained that the framework would allow the Government to 'go out to the sector and say these are the services that in the next five, 10 or 15 years we expect to be delivered'.
'As a Government we are not going to tell you how to do that, technology will evolve, people will try different ways, but we want to get to a point where we have a set of services defined in the UK that we want to deliver. So we can talk in simple language and say this is where we want to get to.
'As a sector, we need to define the service levels. We need to work out what the standards are and authorities need to think about how they will use them,' he added.
Mr Capes said the speech was aimed at starting a conversation about the future connected data services that will bring together vehicles, road users and road operators.
This process would help the DfT develop relevant policies to support the roll-out of connected services and will also ensure the UK is able to utilise wider European vehicle and data standards, the technology lead said.
'By starting this conversation, we aim to find consensus about the future shape of the connected data services environment in ways that allow it to be reflected in a practical and deliverable way in the Government’s Data Action Plan and Integrated National Transport Strategy.'
