My Lords, I thank the Minister for his response. This has been a good debate, with some important points raised. It is a good example of us trying to think positively, outside the box, about the important issues that this new technology will raise for us all. I just pick one raised by the noble Lord, Lord Cameron, which is the potential to benefit rural areas. I fear that they will probably be the last areas to benefit, unless there is a proper plan. That is the sort of thing we should rightly be doing here at this stage of the Bill. However, having listened carefully to the Minister, I will look very carefully at Hansard, because he said some interesting but worrying things.
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First, he said that self-driving vehicles must be able to operate on the roads as they are today. I will take that away and think about it, because the Minister is arguing there will be no cost. I have to say this is not the way those involved in the technology behind this new industry see the future; they do not think along those lines. The AV industry considers that there will have to be changes to our roads for its vehicles to operate in anything other than the most limited manner. Of course, there will be areas where you could run a robo-taxi system over a few hundred yards, or perhaps establish a public transport system in some modern areas of a city centre, but it is not going to be a general thing that can be done without considerable change. Indeed, it is not the experience of the experiments taking place in San Francisco, where failures in the system have been very much linked, on occasions, with the state of the infrastructure.
I am afraid that the Government are driving themselves into a cul-de-sac on this one. There are parallels with the Government’s attitude to electric vehicle charging points. Over the years since that change began to happen, the Government have told us that the market will decide; that competition is king and that government do not have a role in leading on this. That did not work, and there are reasons why we are behind so many other countries in the rollout of electric vehicle charging points, and therefore the sale and development of electric vehicles—that part of our economy—and of course the manufacture of the vehicles to service that economy. The Government need to look carefully.
I turn finally to the scope of the Bill. The Government’s understanding of its scope seems to be at variance with the interpretation by the clerks of this House. There needs to be a discussion, because it is not realistic to argue that delivery robots are part of this Bill if they cannot deliver. You cannot as a delivery robot do your job if you are constrained to the highway. A delivery robot, at least nine times out of 10, has to deliver to a place that is not the highway.
Having said all that, I will of course read Hansard carefully. I thank the Minister for his answer and I withdraw my amendment.