'Driverless cars' seem set to be in the vanguard of those significantly 
safety critical and physically instantiated 'Robotics and Autonomous 
Systems" (RAS) that will be "let out in public", i.e., generally 
available for purchase as affordable commercial items. Some say that 
overcoming the many technical, legal and societal issues associated with 
wide acceptance of this technological advance will open the RAS 
'floodgates', by setting the mechanisms in place for many other RAS 
devices to reach the marketplace. There are a number of reasons for this 
view, covering the complete range from technology 'push', through 
societal 'pull' and encompassing many commercial motivations. However, 
there are significant challenges, opportunities and risks involved from 
both technical and societal directions. In this presentation, Prof. Pipe 
will use a focus on a description of some of the most significant 
technology challenges to also discuss the societal issues with the 
audience, in the context of the work he has been undertaking in two 
Innovate UK funded projects in the area, VENTURER 
(https://www.venturer-cars.com/) and FLOURISH