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Uber and Wayve had said they would start trips ‘later this summer’ but launch now looks unlikely this year The rollout of robotaxis on the streets of London is unlikely to happen this year, as regulatory and technical hurdles push back the ambitious schedule set out by the UK government. Only weeks ago Uber and London-based Wayve were granted the first minicab licences in the capital to allow them to offer self-driving taxi rides to paying customers – but with a human safety driver in place, for now – and said they would start trips “later this summer” before a full public launch . Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: A surge in deadly wrong‑way crashes has exposed ​o​ur failure to protect young drivers, as grieving families and safety experts warn that age, inexperience and lax licensing rules are costing lives Good morning. The UK government yesterday backed Ofcom to take “tough action” against social media companies that fail to remove posts celebrating dangerous driving, in response to a series of unsafe, and sometimes deadly, viral trends. Young men are filming themselves driving the wrong way down busy streets, accelerating to extreme speeds on narrow rural roads and putting a vehicle in “ghost mode” – switching off headlights and taillights at night – for clicks and kudos. Andy Burnham labelled people who share such content as “truly reprehensible” after two police officers died in a head on collision in the early hours of Saturday morning near Middlesbrough. Their vehicle crashed into a car driving the wrong way down the A66. Five young men aged between 17 and 23 were ...

Luke Pollard says government will force platforms to remove content, after latest deadly crash involving a car driving in wrong direction A minister has pressed social media companies to remove content from their platforms showcasing dangerous driving after a fatal collision that killed seven people in Middlesbrough. The crash in the early hours of Saturday, in which PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough died, occurred when a Volkswagen Passat, containing five individuals aged between 23 and 17, crashed head-on with a marked armed response vehicle while driving the wrong way on the A66. Continue reading...

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions probes an intriguing scientific question in relation to the climate emergency Readers reply: Is it inevitable that consumerism will literally fill up the planet? If all the vehicles on the planet had their tyres pumped up with CO 2 , would this lock up enough carbon to lower the amount in the air significantly? Would there be other issues, such as the carbon cost of trapping it all into the tyres? Chris Coldwell, Lancaster Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them to nq@theguardian.com . A selection will be published next Sunday. Continue reading...

Harvard study finds traffic fatalities increase by 15% on release dates compared with similar days either side The release of a new album by Taylor Swift might be a cause for celebration among her fans, but such events have also been linked to a more sombre phenomenon: an increase in fatal car crashes. The team behind a new study say it sheds light on the impact of distracted driving. “You can’t randomise people into using their phones, and drivers rarely volunteer what they were doing in the seconds before a crash,” said Dr Vishal Patel, first author of the study based at Harvard Medical School. Continue reading...

Chinese-owned AESC has pushed back plans in sign of slowing transition from petrol and diesel to electric cars Andy Burnham moves to cut new EV sales targets The UK’s biggest gigafactory has shelved plans to expand production in Sunderland because of stalled talks on a deal to supply electric car batteries to Jaguar Land Rover. Chinese-owned AESC produces batteries for Nissan at its gigafactory next door to the Japanese carmaker’s Sunderland plant. However, AESC has had to push back its ramp-up plans because of lower-than-expected demand from Nissan and the lack of a deal with JLR, according to people with knowledge of the situation. Continue reading...