When people are asked to think of autonomous vehicles, it is probably a fair bet to assume that robotaxis will spring to mind. After all, they are one of the more exciting and visible applications for the technology, reflected being the one which often hits the media headlines. One of the most recent examples of this was in February, when it was announced that following the passage of the Autonomous Vehicle Act last year, Waymo would be launching a pilot in London with the aim of operating a fully-autonomous robotaxi service later this year. However, the focus on robotaxis masks the significant progress the UK is making with autonomous vehicles in other areas, primarily in off-highway sites such as ports and airports, as well as shuttle services for mass passenger transport. “Our focus on these areas is a strategic push to say there are these near-term markets that a broader set of people can really get into,” says Mark Cracknell, programme director of Zenzic, which exists to bring together industry, government and academia to support the strategic rollout of connected and automated mobility (CAM) technologies in the UK. “We are trying to find where there is the economic opportunity that complements the social opportunity. “If you start with the question ‘how do you be competitive against the likes of Waymo and Baida, who are tech giants and investing billions and billions?’, then that is a big challenge for anybody to pick up, so we have to look at where we can be competitive. Where is there space in the global market for British companies to be successful? “So you go through the process to say robotaxi is the exciting technology that gets the headlines but, actually, autonomy can be anywhere. “If you want to do that with economic benefit, then