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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
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Adam Tranter

The car made pedestrians second-class citizens. Don’t let driverless vehicles push us off the road altogether

An autonomous car on a London street with a bus behind it
An autonomous car on the streets of London. Photograph: [email protected]/Wayve

This week, the UK government announced its plans to fast-track driverless vehicle trials in the UK. One of the key companies involved noted that London presents a significant challenge: “It has seven times more jaywalkers than San Francisco.” There’s more than one problem with that statement – and it encapsulates so much of what’s already going wrong in the adoption of driverless cars.

For a start, “jaywalking” isn’t even a thing in the UK. We thankfully have no such concept or offence. Unlike in many US cities, pedestrians here are free to cross the road wherever they see fit. And thank goodness for that.

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