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Driverless cars will lead to data-sharing – of the electrical kind

Tell the grid how much juice your auto autos are sucking, says UK transport sec

AEV Bill A new amendment to the UK's Automated and Electric Vehicles Bill aims to make it mandatory for electric car charging point operators to transmit power consumption data to Britain's National Grid.

The amendment, tabled by transport secretary Chris Grayling, would make it a legal requirement for "charge point data" to be transmitted to the National Grid and local electricity distribution network operators.

This would become a legally binding requirement on operators of both public and private charging points, with the transport sec proposing a related amendment that would give inspectors powers to enter land and take documents relating to public charging points. In his explanatory note to the amendment he said that this "removes the requirement that entry on to land must be for the purpose of inspecting a public charging point".

The existing wording in the bill would limit this power to inspecting public charging points only, rather than including private ones and documents relating to them.

Lib Dem MP Wera Hobhouse has also tabled an amendment that would make it mandatory for councils, supermarkets, car parks, airports and railway stations to offer public charging points.

Along with that, a small group of Labour MPs led by Karl Turner have tabled an amendment demanding that Grayling produces a nationwide "strategy for establishing charging points for public transport and commercial vehicles" and a "report on location of public charging points" across the UK.

The AEV Bill will define the insurance framework for future rollouts of driverless cars on the streets of Great Britain, as well as other things such as imposing more sense on the country's chaotic collection of charging points. Insurance companies have already shied away from a Parliamentary suggestion that they should pay out if driverless cars commit minor traffic violations.

Readers can follow the progress of the bill, including next week's Parliamentary committee hearing on its progress, here on The Register. ®

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