The EU Wants To Take Half The Cars Off Its Roads By 2050

The European Union has revealed a vision for its future in which traffic deaths and life-threatening injuries would be eliminated and the number of cars on its roads cut in half.

According to the UK's Autocar, that's the message EU transport commissioner Violeta Bulc presented earlier today in London at the Future of the Car Summit.

Following the lead set by Sweden's Vision Zero, a campaign started in 1997 to eliminate road deaths and serious injuries, the EU wants to take a broader approach by also eliminating all road transport emissions and red tape.

Bulc said that 24 percent of the EU's health problems can be traced back to vehicle emissions, which she said is higher than the rate of injuries and deaths caused by collisions.

"Why did we agree that transport kills?" she asked the summit's delegates.

Bulc said stricter emissions regulations coming in the future will "put legislative pressure on car makers to introduce greener cars."

Perhaps not coincidentally, the EU's 2050 timeline is about a decade after France, the UK and Germany plan to have banned the sale of combustion-only vehicles, while Scotland wants to do the same by 2032.

Further, Bulc said autonomous vehicles will fill a future gap that will be left by changing attitudes to driving licences and car ownership, citing a desire among young people to make more productive use of the time spent getting places in cars.

To reassure those anxious about the privacy and hacking risk that self-driving cars present, Bulc promised future EU legislation would keep up with those cyber threats.