Top 5 driving professions likely to be automated
Driving roles at risk of automation
Over the last five years alone there have been a range of advancements in vehicle automation, from Just Eat trialing the world’s first drone-delivered meal using a pavement robot, to Waymo’s self-driving vans which analyse the world around them.
Other companies, such as Uber Freight and mobility firm Navya have begun developing larger self-driving vehicles in the form of commercial cargo vehicles and driverless buses respectively, whilst Volvo has debuted a prototype bin lorry, which follows a human driver down the road using an overhead drone.
| Job type | Average wage | Number employed | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coach driver | £18,645 | 140,000 | |||
| Package delivery driver | £17,959 | 155,000 | |||
| Post delivery driver | £21,245 | 155,000 | |||
| Minibus driver | £17,136 | 24,000 | |||
| Fire engine operator | £30,000 | 32,227 | |||
| Ambulance driver | £20,776 | 22,290 | |||
| Driving instructor | £42,500 | 29,000 | |||
| Police driver | £22,307 | 165,130 |
Accident comparison
One of the main drivers of vehicle automation is to reduce accidents with human error the main cause of accidents today. However despite those who drive for work spending more time on the road than the average motorist they are less likely to be involved in an accident.
The reduced risk of accident as a result of a higher skill level on the road is further emphasised in the premiums drivers pay. When running a car insurance quote the driver is asked to determine their use type, either social only, social and commuting or social, commuting and for business. Those who chose social, commuting and for business were quoted £455 on average for their insurance premium, significantly lower than social drivers.
Sources & Methodology
All data on How Automation May Affect Your Job has been taken from desk research on possible automation in the UK. We used relevant articles and sources to provide accurate research. Where we were not able to find average salaries for positions, we instead created a UK average from job listings. For insurance costs, where exact job titles were unavailable, the nearest positions were used - including "police officer" for "police driver" and "firefighter" for "fire engine driver".
In cases where job titles overlapped in terms of government data, the same number of jobs has been used in both cases.
https://willrobotstakemyjob.com/
https://www.replacedbyrobot.info/
http://uk.businessinsider.com/
https://www.payscale.com/research/
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