Are driver-less cars the future? Find out about driver-less cars and working in manufacturing in the UK

The manufacturing industry is huge. It contributes £6.7 trillion to the global economy and UK manufacturing is 11^th largest in the world, employing 2.6 million people across a wealth of sectors including:

• Food and beverage manufacturing
• Textiles, wood, paper and products manufacturing
• Chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing
• Machinery and equipment manufacturing
• Transport manufacturing, including a large automotive industry

What is manufacturing?

The simple answer is that manufacturing is the production of things, including composite materials. In reality though manufacturing covers research, design, production, logistics and distribution, sales and marketing and aftersales.

You can be fairly certain that as long as we need ‘things’ then manufacturing jobs will exist and changes in lifestyle, new diseases and growing wealth are all things that drive new advances in manufacturing technologies and new products.

The automotive industry

The automotive and aerospace manufacturing industries are driven by greater demand as wealth grows and also new research, design and production (including new composite materials). One of the newest areas of development for the automotive industry is that of the driver-less car, which is expected to be worth £900 billion by 2025.

Driver-less cars are considered by many to be the future of road travel, where drivers will become passengers who are able to work, talk to friends or surf the internet, all while travelling from A to B.

Driver-less cars are already being trialled in the UK, with Audi, Mercedes and BMW all developing prototypes. Coventry is hosting the UK automotive programme with Ford and Jaguar Land rover. These driver-less cars, which use a system of sensors and panoramic cameras to pinpoint traffic and objects have not been entirely problem free however and there have been some issues with weather, potholes and temporary traffic lights affecting their functionality.

To find out about other aspects of manufacturing and apprenticeships in manufacturing and engineering visit our main engineering page.