World’s first independent autonomous safety driver training course receives official accreditation

Accreditation of the new autonomous safety driver training course coincides with the UK government’s recent update to the Code of Practice: Automated Vehicle Trialling.

CAV developers require experience in the world of vehicle testing and evaluation driving to comply with this government advice. While OEMs and companies already established in the world of vehicle testing will, in the majority of instances, already comply, startups and established technology companies not familiar with the ways of the motor industry may find themselves with a bridge to gap.

These strengthened Department for Transport guidelines reinforce the need to develop a detailed safety case before conducting trials, including safety driver or remote operator training. Point 4.14 of the Code states: ‘Trialling organizations are expected to develop robust procedures to ensure the competency of drivers and operators.’

CAT Driver Training’s innovative autonomous safety driver training course is the first of its kind and now the first to achieve official accreditation. Chief instructor Colin Hoad said, “The course we have designed is unique, combining engineering knowledge with advanced defensive driving technique. Like CAT, many of the companies developing self-driving vehicles are independent. Their speciality lies in technology and AI, meaning developers will likely have had little or no experience testing within testbeds and test tracks.

CAT’s newly accredited four-day course has been developed to support autonomous experts across a variety of fields, contributing to robust health and safety policy and procedure.”



Hoad, who created the course, added, “We believe driving intelligence is the missing piece of the self-driving puzzle. By uniting the testing and evaluation practices of today with vehicle dynamic driving principal, our training optimizes existing CAV development projects to produce the most advanced driver of tomorrow.”

The autonomous safety driver course is accredited at the Level 4 category with three vocational learning credits from OCN Credit4Learning. Qualification body OCN adds: Delegates taking the course will be trained and tested using a selection of driving scenarios and road networks on the public highway, along with five different circuits in Millbrook Proving Ground. Written tests are included to confirm Highway Code and vehicle dynamics knowledge and learning outcomes.