Dr George Gillespie, CEO of HORIBA MIRA, a world-leader in advanced engineering, research and product testing, has lauded the UK as a great place to develop connected and autonomous vehicle (CAV) technologies.

Dr Gillespie represented the company at the G7 Transport Ministers’ meeting in Karuizawa, Japan on September 24-25, 2016. During the meeting, ministers adopted two joint declarations on the development and widespread use of advanced technology for automobiles and roads and strategies for new and aging transport infrastructure.

Dr Gillespie spoke about the UK opportunity for CAVs, focusing on the UK as an ‘Innovation Nation’ and the strength of the UK in the core underpinning technologies used in the development of CAVs.

Dr Gillespie commented: “The UK has deep technical capabilities and is an ‘Innovation Nation’ that embraces emerging technologies. As second in the Global Innovation Index, the UK also has one of the most effective university-business collaborations of Europe’s major economies. This, combined with our strength in real-time control, connectivity and networks, localisation and mapping and data privacy and security technologies, highlights how the UK is one of the world’s go-to locations for the development of CAV technologies.”

In his speech, Dr Gillespie also highlighted how the supportive tax environment and welcoming regulatory framework combined with world class universities, government support for R&D and a global test bed combine to make the UK a great place to develop CAV technologies.