Road technology going slow in the fast lane

Photo: Becky Pitzer/Flickr

Road technology used in smart motorways has failed to keep pace with developments in vehicle technologies, researchers have found, reports The Construction Index in the UK.

This has major implications with the advent of self-driving cars, which might not be able to navigate England’s new generation of smart motorways.

Construction contractor Galliford Try is working with researchers at Loughborough University on an Innovate UK/Highways England project to investigate the implications for connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) on the UK motorway network.

The project is now into its second phase, following the completion of the first stage which highlighted three main areas of concern for the use of CAVs on the motorway network: how they deal with roadworks; merging and diverging areas; and lane markings.