UK Bill Would Make Chargers Mandatory At Gas Stations
UK’s Department for Transport has announced a plan to require the installation of charging points for electric vehicle at motorway service stations, and at larger gas stations.
There is already some 11,500 charging points in the UK today (mostly AC), but several thousand more located at gas stations would be significant expansion.
“Motorway services and large petrol retailers will be required to install chargepoints for electric cars, under plans announced in the House of Commons today (18 October 2017) by Transport Minister John Hayes.”
A second part of the new bill (the first reading took place in the House of Commons on October 18) centers around the insurance of autonomous cars.
All automated vehicles will be required to be insured, and victims of collisions involving an automated vehicle will have quick and easy access to compensation, in line with existing insurance practices.
Under the proposed bill, the insurer would be liable for the consequences of accidents caused by autonomous vehicle. In cases when the insurance isn’t paid, the consequences then fall on the owner of the vehicle.
On the other hand, the owners themselves will be responsible for critical updates of all operating software, and all the self-modifications they do to the system.
“Automated vehicles have the potential to greatly reduce road traffic accidents – in 2016 85.9% of collisions causing injury involved human error, while official research estimates that the market will be worth £50 billion to the UK economy by 2035.”
Transport Minister John Hayes said:
“We want the UK to be the best place in the world to do business and a leading hub for modern transport technology, which is why we are introducing the Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill in Parliament and investing more than £1.2 billion in the industry.
This bill will aid the construction of greater infrastructure to support the growing demand for automated and electric vehicles as we embrace this technology and move into the future.”
Roads Minister Jesse Norman said:
“Automated and electric vehicles will help improve air quality, cut congestion, boost safety and create thousands of skilled jobs in the UK. We have already supported the purchase of 115,000 ultra-low emission cars and there are already more than 11,500 publicly available chargepoints, but the demand continues to grow as more people purchase electric vehicles to cut fuel costs and boost the environment.”