In 2020, scientists from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) carried out an experiment to see how humans and a new generation of smart machines can work together to change military operations. This most recent test was part of a decade-long annual testing regime known as the Army Warfighting Experiment (AWE). Here, Roger Brereton head of sales at military steering system specialist, Pailton Engineering, explains how projects like this will help the military vehicle industry get over the technical and ethical hurdles it currently faces.

The trolley problem is a classical philosophical dilemma that is used to illustrate the moral conundrum surrounding how to program autonomous vehicles to react to different situations. However, this particular thought experiment may be just the tip of the iceberg. Here Kostas Poulios, principal design and development engineer at steering systems specialist Pailton Engineering, takes a closer look at the ethical dilemmas of fully autonomous vehicles.

Vehicle original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) ask for three things when sourcing vehicle parts: good price, quality and service. Here Nick Jordan, head of engineering and quality at steering system specialist Pailton Engineering, explains how one assembly process at its headquarters in Coventry, UK has amped up all three of these ever-important factors.