Cars offer unparalleled personal mobility and convenience. It is hard to see that the majority will ever wish to give this up. The challenge for policy makers and manufacturers is to capture the benefits of the car whilst minimising the ill effects. Great steps are already being made. The car of the future may look very similar to the car of today, but its technology will be quite different. New forms of engine technology, fuel technology, crash protection and driver assistance systems are being developed, and the capabilities of future vehicles are likely to be far beyond those of the cars on the road today. The Government has made some progress in trying to encourage early take-up of advanced technology through a series of targets, strategies and incentives. It has been among the world’s leaders in developing such policies. Inevitably, given the uncertainty surrounding new technology, some policies have been effective whilst others have floundered. If we are to have safe clean cars in the future, we need to learn the lessons of such policy success or failure so that customer confidence in new technology is not damaged, and industry is encouraged to take it up.