Diolch yn fawr. Can I thank Jenny Rathbone and everybody else who sponsored this debate, because I think it’s really important that we start to look to the future? When we are developing a new economic strategy, this has got to be a fundamental part of it, and I’m really pleased that Julie James is the person replying to this as she has a real understanding of this technology and the need and the potential of this changing the way that we live. I don’t see it as something negative, I see it as really giving new opportunities in particular to people living in rural Wales. I know that General Motors this week announced that it would be test driving self-driving vehicles in New York city. So, the point is: this is happening now, this is not a revolution that’s going to happen in the future, this is not science fiction for our grandchildren—this is happening now and we need to catch up, and we need to create the infrastructure and to put that in place. In fact, Elon Musk, who’s the guru of this new technology, has said he wants to have a fully autonomous vehicle on the road by 2018: that’s next year. That’s a commercial vehicle. So, things are changing: I’ve just come back from Brussels yesterday, and you could see cars being charged on the street in Brussels. Other people are doing it, we need to catch up.

It’s predicted that, in time, this new technology will lead to a 90 per cent reduction in accidents, a 40 per cent reduction in congestion, an 80 per cent reduction in emissions, and 50 per cent reduction in parking space saved. And I think it’s absolutely right that we shouldn’t just restrict this, as Jenny said, to electric vehicles. Hydrogen vehicles also have an opportunity to contribute to this. I know that in my constituency, in Llandrindod Wells, the Riversimple car—they are just about to start a new pilot that is going to be happening from Abergavenny. So, this is happening—we are a part of this, but we do need to go further.

One of the most interesting things for me is that, actually, the potential for new car ownership is likely to change. Now, KPMG has suggested that 59 per cent of industry bosses believe that more than half of all car owners today will no longer want to own a car by 2025: that’s eight years from now. Well, I don’t know about you lot, but that means I’ve bought my last car. [Laughter.] So, I think it’s really important for us to understand that this circular economy, that the new way of owning cars is actually also going to change the way we have our relationship with the way we travel around. And, of course, there will be casualties. There will be casualties: taxi drivers are probably not very happy about this; the people who build combustion engines are probably not very excited about this. But that’s why we have to move with it and create the new jobs. I’m not one of the doom-mongers. I don’t think that we can stick the finger in the dyke. I think it’s really important that we embrace it and we run with it.

We have to take advantage of those economic opportunities. The Boston Consulting Group says that this market is going to be worth $77 billion by 2035. Now, even if we had a fraction of that in Wales that would be a great step. I really hope that the Minister and the Cabinet Secretary, when they’re developing this new economic strategy, will be thinking—as I’m sure they are—beyond the here and now. It’s given me great heart to listen to Julie, to know that, actually, they have got their eye on this, there is potential for it, but also to listen to, actually, the real problems that we have. You know, if we do have this 5G Wi-Fi going out to the commercial sector, not having any control on it, then that, potentially, could really freeze up the system in some areas. I think it’s important also—. We heard about planning—lots of people talked about planning—and I think Rhun was absolutely right to mention not just the infrastructure charging system that Vikki suggested is really important—that rapid charging system. There’s also the destination charging. You can drive to somewhere and leave it charging overnight. We need to make sure that can happen, and it is happening in some places in Wales already. But I think there is an opportunity for us to think. And I do hope that we’ll be building this into things when we’re assessing what the impact’s going to be if we do go ahead with changing the M4, and what the impact’s going to be when we are redesigning our towns and cities. All of these things need to be built in to that planning thinking now, as Rhun suggested.

I know that many people in this Chamber are committed to improving public transport in Wales, and I would ask that people give particular thought to how this technology could be really beneficial in parts of rural Wales, where we do need things to be a little bit more flexible, where we can’t have big buses and things in the same way as you do in cities. And the potential there, I think, in particular for helping an ageing population is really great and, again, we need to be thinking about that.

Dai Lloyd talked about the difficulty with narrow country lanes. Well, one of the things that I’ve learned from talking to Tesla is that you have to paint white stripes at the edge of roads, but in half of our rural areas there are no white stripes for these autonomous vehicles to read. So, again, what are local authorities doing? Are they actually writing that into their economic strategies?

So, we do need to think about how we’re going to do this, we do need to think about how we can adapt our grids—not just the large infrastructure grids, but could we have more local grids? Can we do more with renewable energy, which is absolutely crucial? We simply won’t be able to continue if we have this revolution to electric vehicles with the power infrastructure that we have now. So, let’s remember that this electric vehicle revolution is upon us. I think we need to move really fast to make sure we’re not left behind, and I do hope that we can lead with this technology and embrace this technology, because I think it’s a real opportunity for us in Wales to be an innovator and to lead.

Diolch yn fawr ichi am drafod.