Netherlands Leading The Way In Preparation for Autonomous Vehicles

We've seen lots of footage of Google's self driving cars (or Waymo as its now called) cruising around California, in the main without issue. Other countries have also embraced the prospect of autonomous cars and have vehicles clocking up thousands of miles on public roads. In China, Daimler has been granted a license to test its self-driving cars on Beijing's public roads while in the United States, about 50 companies are testing autonomous vehicles in California. As the technology becomes more widespread, which countries are best prepared to harness it? a KPMG study found that the Netherlands is actually the country with the highest level of readiness for autonomous driving. The study rated countries on 26 variables within 4 pillars: policy & legislation, technology & innovation, infrastructure and consumer acceptance. The Netherlands came first in the ranking with a score of 27.73 with KPMG noting that it provides an AV readiness model for other countries to follow with excellent infrastructure, a highly supportive government along with the enthusiastic adoption of electric vehicles. Singapore comes second with 26.08 and it made progress by introducing an amendment to its Road Traffic Act last year which allowed self-driving cars to be tested on its streets, maybe no coincidence that Sir James Dyson recently announced that Dyson are to build their new electric car in Singapore with launch planned for 2021. The U.S. is also high on the index, hardly surprising given its ambitious testing program and the fact that it has 163 companies developing self-driving technology, the highest number of any country. It scored well in technology & innovation but it had a poorer performance in the infrastructure pillar, as well as the fact that its consumers have poor acceptance levels of autonomous vehicles.