One of the most successful IT based policy initiatives in London, the congestion charge has reportedly been beaten by a rise in delivery vans and private hire cars according to a report run by the London Assembly Transport Committee.

The committee has proposed that the existing charge be replaced by a ‘road pricing’ system which would be based on distance travelled and the time of day.

The current congestion charge is fixed at £11.50 per day and is supported by automatic number plate recognition technology (ANPR), which was introduced back in 2003. Between 2002 and 2014 the number of vehicles entering central London fell by around 39%.

After a decade of initial success, it appears that congestion is back on the rise with average vehicle speed on major roads falling by 11% from 2012 to 2015.

The report suggests that the increase is not due to the use of private cars which it states has been decreasing over the last decade. However, the number of light delivery and private hire vehicles have increased by over 70% in less than 4 years.

Delivery vans still pay a contribution towards the charge but private hire vehicles that are licensed with London Taxi and Private Hire are exempt. The committee has proposed that the exemption be removed.

The London Assembly Transport committee commented “The recent increase in congestion should lead to a reassessment of whether the policy is achieving key objectives, and how it may be modified or replaced.”

They have put forward a short-term plan whereby the system is replaced by one that charges vehicles more for entering the posted zones at peak times and for the time spent within that zone. The long-term plan is to integrate the charge with other charges that drivers have to pay such as road tax. They have not outlined what that would mean for vehicles registered in London but used outside of the capital.

This being said, some of the committee’s other solutions seem much more reasonable. One of which are to consider expanding the use of electronic board displays on the outside of the buses which show real time traffic and congestion information.

Caroline Pidgeon, the char of the committee says: “We recommend in this report that the mayor should make plans now to introduce road pricing in London. This idea has long been discussed, but until now the political will make it happen has been lacking. Delaying further is not an option.”

California’s attorney general Kamala Harris has threatened legal action against Uber unless they comply and “immediately” remove self-driving vehicles from the roads in San Francisco.

The threat was released by the attorney general in a letter released to the public shortly after Uber stated it would defy the states regulations out of principle.

Only 20 companies have been given approval to test self-driving cars in California and Uber had not been included due to the company refusing to abide by the same rules and regulations as its rivals.

The DMV had ordered Uber to either obtain a permit or remove its self-driving vehicles from the road on its first day on the trail which they had started without permission.

The letter released by the attorney general has warned that should Uber not comply with the rules they will “seek injunctive and other appropriate relief”.

Uber has made it clear that they have no intention of backing down as the head of Uber’s autonomous vehicle programme, Anthony Levandowski said that the rules did not apply to the fleet due to the particular form of technology used in the vehicle.

He then went on to say, “We cannot in good conscience sign up to regulation for something we’re not doing,”

“It’s an important issue of principle about when companies can operate self-driving cars on the roads and the uneven application of state-wide rules across very similar types of technology.”

Levandowski argued that Uber’s fleet were not capable of operating without being controlled/monitored by a human operator and therefore they did not need to seek a testing permit. He went on to compare the technology to Tesla’s autopilot feature which the DMV deemed they did not need a permit for.

In May of 2016 the first known death caused by a self-driving car took place in a Tesla vehicle that was using auto pilot.

Uber first rolled out the fleet of autonomous vehicles in Pittsburgh back in August, the home of Uber’s self-driving-car facility. The programme was met with enthusiasm by local officials however the same cannot be said about San Francisco.

According to the San Francisco Examiner, the police departments traffic division was not given the heads up on Uber’s programme until after it had begun. Two of the Uber vehicles had been observed running red lights on the first day of the pilot tests however Uber has advised that the drivers involved had been suspended.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has also highlighted concerns with the programme as Brian Wiedenmeier posted about them in a blog post. Wiedenmeier had been given an invitation to take a ride in one of the vehicle prior to the launch however the journey only deepened his concerns with the vehicle ability to operate safely on the streets that they share with bicyclists.

The current conflict has furthered the argument that critics class as unethical and illegal tactics that the company uses in order to grow their business.

Gett will be looking to launch a carpooling service, similar to its rival Uber, in the Capital and possibly other markets in places such as New York. Gett Together

The founder and chief executive of Gett, Shahar Waiser has stated that it could achieve “price point in carpooling that’s never been done before”

For London that would be similar to tube prices which would be fixed.

“It’s a shared commute. There are many people in the car and actually using black cabs gives opportunity to have more people in the vehicle in comfort. With that we can achieve, firstly, faster speeds because we have access to the bus lanes,” said Waiser.

The service will take on UberPool which last week extended the areas of cover across the city.

Gett Together was available to some users on the 05/12/2016 and will be rolled out to a wider audience over the coming weeks.