Computer says no: Britain's smart motorways regularly struck by tech gremlins

► Smart motorways riddled with errors
► Powercuts, broken radar, tech gremlins galore
► Why smart motorways are being cancelled

Britain’s smart motorway network is riddled with technical errors, a BBC Panorama investigation has found – casting further doubt on the supposedly dynamic, high-tech type of modern road.

Investigators for the programme uncovered hundreds of incidents when the technology underpinning 193 miles of smart motorways failed, including:

Panorama claims that the technology is so unreliable that there were almost one power outage a day in the six months leading up to February 2024. National Highways insists that smart motorways are safe and claims that it has well established back-up plans to deal with powercuts and other system failures.

At least 79 people have been killed on smart motoways since their introduction in 2010. You can watch the Panorama programme Smart Motorways: When Technology Fails on the BBC iPlayer.

Plans for future smart motorway networks in the UK were officially cancelled last year. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that any future development and construction plans for the controversial ‘upgrading’ of the UK’s motorway network was halted in April 2023.

This doesn’t mean that the current network of smart motorways in England will change per se, but it means the grand project will not be rolled out any further. The Government cites both safety concerns and ballooning costs of the projects as the main reasons for the cancellations.

In a statement on 15 April 2023, Sunak said: ‘Many people across the country rely on driving to get to work, to take their children to school and go about their daily lives and I want them to be able to do so with full confidence that the roads they drive on are safe.’

The news follows a report published by a Transport select committee in early 2022, which demanded a number of safety measures be implemented, the Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced a U-turn on the policy to roll out a further 120 miles of smart motorways and committed £390 million to deliver the committe’s suggested measures.

But what are smart motorways? Why the cause for controversy and are the concerns justified?